SOME-ASPECTS- OF 
§li  TH  ACK  FRAY  m 


MELVILLE  - 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF  THACKERAY 


WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 

From  an  unpublished  water-color  drawing  by  W.  Drummond,  1850 

By  permission  of  Major  WiUlam  H.  Lambert 

Frontispiece 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF 
THACKERAY 


AtTTHOH  OF  "THE  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY ' 
"THE  THACKERAY  COUNTRY,"  ETC. 


Illustrated 


BOSTON 

LITTLE,  BROWN,  AND  COMPANY 
1911 


Copyright,  1911, 
BY  LEWIS  MELVILLE. 

All  rights  reserved 
Published,  September,  1911 


THE   UNIVERSITY    PRESS,    CAMBRIDGE,    U.  S.  A. 


TO 

FREDERICK   S.  DICKSON 


THE  papers  entitled  "Thackeray  and 
the  Dignity  of  Literature,"  "Thack- 
eray and  the  Newgate  School  of  Fiction," 
and  "Some  First  Editions  of  Thackeray" 
are  now  printed  for  the  first  time.  The 
other  articles,  which  have  appeared  in  various 
English  (and  sometimes  also  in  American) 
reviews  and  magazines,  have  been  revised, 
and  in  some  cases  considerably  expanded. 
I  am  indebted  to  Mr.  W.  L.  Courtney  for 
permission  to  include  "Thackeray  as  a 
Reader  and  Critic  of  Books,"  and  "Thack- 
eray's Ballads,"  which  appeared  in  the 
Fortnightly  Review,  and  to  Messrs.  Macmillan 
and  Co.,  Ltd.,  for  permission  to  include 
"Thackeray  and  Dickens"  which  appeared 
in  Temple  Bar.  With  regard  to  "Thack- 
eray and  his  Illustrators,"  Messrs.  Smith, 
Elder  and  Co.  have  kindly  allowed  me  to 


viii    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

insert  reproductions  of  several  illustrations, 
including  the  late  George  du  Maurier's  illus- 
tration from  "Esmond,"  and  Messrs.  J.  M. 
Dent  and  Co.,  Ltd.,  that  of  Mr.  Brock's 
illustration  to  "The  Proser."  Major  Wil- 
liam H.  Lambert,  of  Philadelphia,  has  kindly 
sent  me  several  photographs  taken  from 
portraits  of  Thackeray  in  his  possession,  for 
reproduction  in  this  volume. 

LEWIS  MELVILLE. 

HARPENDEN,  ENGLAND, 
June,  1911. 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

I    THACKERAY  AND  THE  DIGNITY  OF  LIT- 
ERATURE      1 

II    THACKERAY  AS  A  READER  AND  CRITIC 

OF  BOOKS 22 

III  THACKERAY'S  BALLADS 49 

IV  THACKERAY  AND  THE  NEWGATE  SCHOOL 

OF  FICTION 82 

V    THACKERAY  AS  ARTIST 97 

VI    THACKERAY  AND  His  ILLUSTRATORS  .    .  124 

VII    THACKERAY'S  ORIGINALS 140 

VIII    THE  LONDON  OF  "  ESMOND"  AND  "  THE 

VIRGINIANS" 180 

IX    SOME  EDITIONS  OF  THACKERAY     .    .    .  214 

X    THACKERAY  AND  DICKENS 225 

XI    THE  CULT  OF  THACKERAY 242 

XII    THACKERAY  AND  THE  STAGE 251 

XIII  THACKERAY'S  "NEW  SKETCH  BOOK"    .  259 

XIV  MR.  WHIBLEY  ON  THACKERAY  271 


LIST  OF  ILLUSTRATIONS 

William  Makepeace  Thackeray   ....    Frontispiece 

From  a  drawing  by  W.  Drummond,  1850  PAGE 

Nathaniel  Parker  Willis 34 

Thackeray,  M.  V.  Higgins,  and  Henry  Reeve     .  38 
From  a  sketch  by  Richard  Doyle 

Thackeray's  drawing  for  the  ballad  of  "Little 

Miss   Perkins" 50 

Thackeray,  from  a  bust  by  Deville 54 

Thackeray,  from  a  drawing  by  D.  Dighton    .     .  68 

William  Harrison  Ainsworth 86 

Thackeray  in  1835,  from  the  drawing  by  Daniel 

Maclise 92 

Thackeray's  drawing  for  "  King  Glumpus  "    .     .  98 

Title  Page  to  "  Flore  et  Zephyr  " 102 

Title  Page  to  "  Comic  Tales  and  Sketches  "    .     .  106 

Cover  to  "Mrs.    Perkins's  Ball " 110 

Cover  to  "The  Book  of  Snobs" 112 

"  Mr.  Sedley  at  the  Coffee-House  " 114 

Illustration  by  Thackeray  for  "  Vanity  Fair" 

Illustration  by  Thackeray   for  "Some  Passages 

in  the  Life  of  Major  Gahagan"     .     .     .     .116 

Illustrations  by  George  Cruikshank  for  a  "  Leg- 
end of  the  Rhine  71  120 


xii  List  of  Illustrations 

PAGE 

"Mr.  Pigeon11 124 

Illustration  by  Kenny  Meadows  in  "  Heads  of  the 
People  " 

"  The  Duel  in  Leicester  Field  " 128 

Illustration  by  George  Du  Maurier  for  "  Henry 
Esmond  " 

"At  the  Sick  Man's  Door" '.        130 

Illustration  by  Frederick  Walker  for  "The  Adven- 
tures of  Philip  " 

Illustration  by  Charles  E.  Brock  for  "  Travels 

and  Sketches  in  London " 132 

Illustration  by  John  Leech  for  "  An  Eastern 

Adventure  of  the  Fat  Contributor "     .     .         134 

"  Jeames  Retiring  from  Service "" 136 

Illustration  by  John  Leech  for  "Jeames's  Diary" 

"  A  Student  of  the  Old  Masters "      .     .     .     .        138 
Illustration  by  Richard  Doyle  for  "The  New- 
comes" 

Dionysius  Lardner 140 

Edward  Bulwer-Lytton  ....'....  144 

Robert  Montgomery 148 

Benjamin  Disraeli 152 

The  Rev.  William  Henry  Brookfield      ...  156 

John  Wilson  Croker 160 

William  Maginn 164 

Theodore  P.  Hook 170 

View  of  Lincoln's  Inn     ........  186 

Theatre  Royal,  Co  vent  Garden 190 


List  of  Illustrations  xiii 

PAGE 

The  North  West  Facade  of  the  New  Covent 

Garden  Market 194 

View  of  St.  Jameses  Palace 196 

The  Hall,  Carlton  House 200 

Vauxhall  on  a  Gala  Night 204 

View  of  Kensington  Palace 208 

Cover  to  "Our  Street " 214 

Title  Page  to  "  The  History  of  Samuel  Titmarsh 

and  The  Great  Hoggarty  Diamond "      .     .  218 

Cover  to  "  Dr.  Birch  and  His  Young  Friends  "  222 

Cover  to  "  Rebecca  and  Rowena  " 226 

Cover  to  "The  Rose  and  the  Ring "     ....  230 

Paper  wrapper  to  a  monthly  part  of  "  Vanity 

Fair" 234 

Paper  wrapper  to  a  monthly  part  of  "Pendennis"  238 
Paper  wrapper  to  a  monthly  part  of  "  The  New- 
comes"     244 

Paper  wrapper  to  a  monthly  part  of  "  The  Vir- 
ginians " 248 

Sir   Herbert  Beerbohm  Tree   as  Colonel   New- 
come  252 

Mrs.  Fiske  as  Becky  Sharp 256 

Thackeray,  from  a  drawing  by  Samuel  Laurence  260 

Thackeray,  from  the  portrait  by  Samuel  Lau- 
rence, 1852 264 

Thackeray,  from  one  of  his  later  photographs  .  268 


SOME  ASPECTS  OF 
THACKERAY 

CHAPTER    I 

Thackeray  and  the  Dignity  of  Literature 

THACKERAY  was  always  proud  to  hold 
a  brief  for  the  dignity  of  his  calling 
and  it  was,  therefore,  with  no  little  irri- 
tation that  one  day  early  in  1850  he  found 
himself  arraigned  by  two  London  papers, 
the  Examiner  and  the  Morning  Chronicle, 
by  the  latter  for  "fostering  a  baneful  preju- 
dice" against  literary  men;  by  the  former 
for  "stooping  to  flatter"  this  prejudice  in 
the  public  mind,  and  condescending  to  carica- 
ture his  literary  fellow-labourers  in  order  to 
pay  court  to  "the  non-literary  class."  The 
attack  was  based  upon  the  portrayal  of  the 
literary  men  who  figured  in  the  novel  of 
"Pendennis."  Thackeray's  reply  was  very 
much  to  the  point.  In  the  first  place  he 


2      Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

denied  that  the  characters  were  exaggerated. 
"I  have  seen  the  booksellers  whom  Bludyer 
robbed  of  his  boots:  I  have  carried  money, 
and  from  a  noble  brother  man-of-letters,  to 
some  one,  not  unlike  Shandon,  in  prison,  and 
have  watched  the  beautiful  devotion  of  his 
wife  in  that  dreary  place,"  he  wrote.  "Why 
are  these  things  not  to  be  described  if  they 
illustrate,  as  they  appear  to  do,  that  strange 
and  awful  struggle  of  good  and  wrong  which 
takes  place  in  our  hearts  and  in  the  world?" 
In  the  second  place,  he  expressed  the  opinion 
that  he  was  entirely  justified  in  what  he  had 
written.  "I  hope,"  he  said,  "that  a  comic 
writer,  because  he  describes  one  author  as 
improvident  and  another  as  a  parasite,  may 
not  only  be  guiltless  of  a  desire  to  vilify  his 
profession,  but  may  really  have  its  honour 
at  heart.  If  there  are  no  spendthrifts  or 
parasites  amongst  us,  the  satire  becomes  un- 
just; but  if  such  exist,  or  have  existed,  they 
are  as  good  subjects  for  comedy  as  men  of 
other  callings.  I  never  heard  that  the  Bar 
felt  itself  aggrieved  because  Punch  chose 
to  describe  Mr.  Dunup's  notorious  state  of 


The  Dignity  of  Literature       3 

insolvency;  or  that  the  picture  of  Stiggins 
in  'Pickwick'  was  intended  as  an  insult  to 
all  Dissenters;  or  that  all  the  attorneys  in 
the  empire  were  indignant  at  the  famous 
history  of  the  firm  of  Quirk,  Gammon,  and 
Snap.  Are  we  to  be  passed  over  because  we 
are  faultless,  or  because  we  cannot  afford 
to  be  laughed  at?  And  if  every  character 
in  a  story  is  to  represent  a  class,  not  an 
individual  —  if  every  bad  figure  is  to  have 
its  obliged  contrast  of  a  good  one,  and  a 
balance  of  vice  and  virtue  is  to  be  struck  — 
novels,  I  think,  would  become  impossible, 
as  they  would  be  intolerably  stupid  and  un- 
natural, and  there  would  be  a  lamentable 
end  of  writers  and  readers  of  such  com- 
positions." 

Thirdly,  he  laughed  to  scorn  the  notion 
that  men  of  letters  as  a  class  were  looked 
at  askance  by  the  non-literary  class.  "Does 
any  man  who  has  written  a  book  worth 
reading  —  any  poet,  novelist,  man  of  science 
—  lose  reputation  by  his  character  for  genius 
or  for  learning?"  he  asked.  "Does  he  not, 
on  the  contrary,  get  friends,  sympathy,  ap- 


4      Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

plause  —  money,  perhaps?  —  all  good  and 
pleasant  things  in  themselves,  and  not  un- 
generously awarded,  as  they  are  honestly 
won.  That  generous  faith  in  men  of  letters, 
that  kindly  regard  in  which  the  whole  reading 
nation  holds  them,  appear  to  me  to  be  so 
clearly  shown  in  our  country  every  day  that 
to  question  them  would  be  as  absurd  as, 
permit  me  to  say  for  my  part,  it  would  be 
ungrateful.  What  is  it  that  fills  mechanics' 
institutes  in  the  great  provincial  towns  when 
literary  men  are  invited  to  attend  their 
festivals?  Has  not  every  literary  man  of 
mark  his  friends  and  his  circle,  his  hundreds, 
or  his  tens  of  thousands,  of  readers?  And 
has  not  every  one  had  from  these  constant 
and  affecting  testimonials  of  the  esteem  in 
which  they  hold  him?  It  is,  of  course,  one 
writer's  lot,  from  the  nature  of  his  subject 
or  of  his  genius,  to  command  the  sympathies 
or  awaken  the  curiosity  of  many  more  read- 
ers than  shall  choose  to  listen  to  another 
author;  but  surely  all  get  their  hearing. 
The  literary  profession  is  not  held  in  dis- 
repute; nobody  wants  to  disparage  it;  no 


The  Dignity  of  Literature       5 

man  loses  his  social  rank,  whatever  it  may 
be,  by  practising  it.  On  the  contrary,  the 
pen  gives  a  place  in  the  world  to  men  who  had 
none  before  —  a  fair  place,  fairly  achieved 
by  their  genius,  as  any  other  degree  of  emi- 
nence is  by  any  other  kind  of  merit."  The 
substance  of  this  passage  he  repeated,  when 
in  the  following  year  he  replied  for  Litera- 
ture at  the  Royal  Literary  Fund's  Annual 
Dinner.  "We  don't  want  patrons,  we  want 
friends;  and  I  thank  God  we  have  them; 
and  as  for  any  idea  that  our  calling  is  de- 
spised by  the  world,  I  do,  for  my  part,  pro- 
test against  and  deny  the  whole  statement," 
he  declared.  "I  have  been  in  all  sorts  of 
society  in  this  world,  and  I  have  never  been 
despised  that  I  know  of.  I  don't  believe 
there  has  been  a  literary  man  of  the  slight- 
est merit  or  of  the  slightest  mark  who  did 
not  greatly  advance  himself  by  his  literary 
labours.  I  see  along  this  august  table  gentle- 
men whom  I  have  had  the  honour  of  shaking 
by  the  hand,  and  gentlemen  whom  I  should 
never  have  called  my  friends  but  for  the 
humble  literary  labours  I  have  been  engaged 


6      Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

in.     And  therefore  I  say,  don't  let  us  be 
pitied  any  more." 

Thackeray  had  little  patience  with  those 
men  of  letters  who  suffered  from  the  impres- 
sion that  they  were  despised  and  with  those 
who  made  strenuous  efforts  to  combat  a 
prejudice  that  was  non-existent.  "Instead  of 
accusing  the  public  of  persecuting  and  dis- 
paraging us  as  a  class,  it  seems  to  me  that 
men  of  letters  had  best  silently  assume  that 
they  are  as  good  as  any  other  gentlemen, 
nor  raise  piteous  controversies  upon  a  ques- 
tion which  all  people  of  sense  must  take  to 
be  settled.  If  I  sit  at  your  table,  I  suppose 
that  I  am  my  neighbour's  equal,  as  that  he 
is  mine.  If  I  begin  straightway  with  a  pro- 
test of  e  Sir,  I  am  a  literary  man,  but  I  would 
have  you  to  know  I  am  as  good  as  you/ 
which  of  us  is  it  that  questions  the  dignity 
of  the  literary  profession  —  my  neighbour, 
who  would  like  to  eat  his  soup  in  quiet,  or 
the  man  of  letters,  who  commences  the  argu- 
ment?" Indeed,  he  thought  the  man  of 
letters  received  more  sympathy  than  was 
due  to  him.  "A  literary  man,"  he  wrote  in 


The  Dignity  of  Literature       7 

"Pendennis,"  "has  often  to  work  for  his 
bread  against  time,  or  against  his  will,  or  in 
spite  of  his  health,  or  of  his  indolence,  or 
of  his  repugnance  to  the  subject  on  which 
he  is  called  to  exert  himself,  just  like  any  other 
daily  toiler.  When  you  want  to  make  money 
by  Pegasus  (as  he  must,  perhaps,  who  has 
no  other  saleable  property)  farewell  poetry 
and  aerial  flights:  Pegasus  only  rises  now 
like  Mr.  Green's  balloon,  at  periods  adver- 
tised beforehand,  and  when  the  spectator's 
money  has  been  paid.  Pegasus  trots  in 
harness,  over  the  stony  pavement,  and  pulls 
a  cart  or  cab  behind  him.  Often  Pegasus 
does  his  work  with  panting  sides  and  trem- 
bling knees,  and  not  seldom  gets  a  cut  of  the 
whip  of  the  driver.  Do  not  let  us,  however, 
be  too  prodigal  of  our  pity  upon  Pegasus. 
There  is  no  reason  why  this  animal  should 
be  exempt  from  labour,  or  illness,  or  decay, 
any  more  than  any  of  the  other  creatures  of 
God's  world.  If  he  gets  the  whip,  Pegasus 
very  often  deserves  it,  and  I  for  one  am  quite 
ready  to  protest  .  .  .  against  the  doctrine 
which  some  poetical  sympathisers  are  in- 


3      Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

clined  to  put  forward,  viz.,  that  men  of 
letters,  and  what  is  called  genius,  are  to  be 
exempt  from  the  prose  duties  of  this  daily 
bread-wanting,  tax-paying  life,  and  are  not 
to  be  made  to  work  and  pay  like  their 
neighbours." 

If  on  the  one  hand  Thackeray  vehemently 
protested  against  the  idea  that  those  who 
followed  the  pursuit  of  letters  required  pity 
and  sympathy,  on  the  other  he  was  the  first 
to  admit  that  the  status  of  men  of  letters 
as  a  class  might  be  improved.  "The  money- 
prizes  which  the  chief  among  them  get  are 
not  so  high  as  those  which  fall  to  men  of 
other  callings  —  to  bishops,  or  to  judges, 
or  to  opera-singers,  and  actors;  nor  have 
they  received  stars  and  garters  as  yet,  or 
peerages  and  governorships  of  islands,  such 
as  fall  to  the  lot  of  military  officers."  An- 
thony Trollope  has  stated  that  Thackeray 
held  strong  views  that  much  was  due  by 
the  Queen's  ministers  to  men  of  letters,  and 
he  added  that  Thackeray  "no  doubt  had 
his  feelings  of  slighted  merit  because  no  part 
of  the  debt  was  paid  to  him."  Thackeray 


The  Dignity  of  Literature        9 

probably  would  have  liked  a  baronetcy  or  a 
barony,  and  as  a  representative  man  of 
letters  he  might  well  have  been  created  Lord 
Thackeray  of  Brompton.  It  was  not,  how- 
ever, that  he  was  particularly  desirous  of 
any  such  distinction  for  himself,  but  he 
thought  if  titles  and  stars  and  ribands  are 
good  for  soldiers  and  sailors  and  statesmen 
and  artists  and  civil  servants,  why  should 
they  be  withheld  from  authors?  He  attrib- 
uted the  fact  that  the  Fountain  of  Honour 
did  not  play  upon  men  of  letters  to  their 
comparative  poverty.  "  Directly  men  of  let- 
ters get  rich,  they  will  come  in  for  their  share 
of  honour  too,"  he  declared. 

While  Thackeray  thus  declared  that  men 
of  letters  should  share  in  the  rewards  for 
meritorious  services  distributed  by  the  gov- 
ernment, he  confessed  frankly  that  he  did 
not  see  how  these  honours  were  to  be  dis- 
tributed. "I  have  heard,  in  a  lecture  about 
George  the  Third,  that,  at  his  accession,  the 
King  had  a  mind  to  establish  an  Order  for 
literary  men,"  he  wrote  in  a  "Roundabout 
Paper."  "It  was  to  have  been  called  the 


io    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Order  of  Minerva  —  I  suppose  with  an  Owl 
for  a  badge.  The  knights  were  to  have  worn 
a  star  of  sixteen  points,  and  a  yellow  ribbon; 
and  good  old  Samuel  Johnson  was  talked  of 
as  President,  or  Grand  Cross,  or  Grand  Owl, 
of  the  society.  Now  about  such  an  order  as 
this  there  certainly  may  be  doubts.  Consider 
the  claimants,  the  difficulty  of  settling  their 
claims,  the  rows  and  squabbles  amongst  the 
candidates,  and  the  subsequent  decision  of 
posterity.  Dr.  Beattie  would  have  ranked 
as  first  poet,  and  twenty  years  after  the  sub- 
lime Mr.  Hayley  would,  no  doubt,  have 
claimed  the  Grand  Cross.  Mr.  Gibbon  would 
not  have  been  eligible,  on  account  of  his 
dangerous  freethinking  opinions;  and  her 
sex,  as  well  as  her  republican  sentiments, 
might  have  interfered  with  the  knighthood 
of  the  immortal  Mrs.  Catharine  Macaulay. 
How  Goldsmith  would  have  paraded  the 
ribbon  at  Madame  Comely s',  or  the  Academy 
dinner!  How  Peter  Pindar  would  have 
railed  at  it!  Fifty  years  later,  the  noble 
Scott  would  have  worn  the  Grand  Cross  and 
deserved  it;  but  Gifford  would  have  had  it; 


The  Dignity  of  Literature      1 1 

and  Byron,  and  Shelley,  and  Hazlitt,  and 
Hunt  would  have  been  without  it;  and  had 
Keats  been  proposed  as  officer,  how  the 
Tory  prints  would  have  yelled  with  rage  and 
scorn!  Had  the  star  of  Minerva  lasted  to 
our  present  time  —  but  I  pause,  not  because 
the  idea  is  dazzling,  but  too  awful.  Fancy 
the  claimants,  and  the  row  about  their 
precedence!  .  .  .  Fancy  the  struggle!  Fancy 
the  squabble!  Fancy  the  distribution  of 
prizes!" 

The  bestowal  of  pensions  was  open  to  the 
same  objections.  "  Even  that  prevailing  senti- 
ment which  regrets  that  means  should  not 
be  provided  for  giving  them  leisure,  for 
enabling  them  to  perfect  great  works  in 
retirement,  that  they  should  waste  away 
their  strength  with  fugitive  literature,  etc., 
I  hold  to  be  often  uncalled  for  and  dangerous," 
Thackeray  wrote  in  his  appreciation  of  Blan- 
chard.  "I  believe,  if  most  men  of  letters 
were  to  be  pensioned,  I  am  sorry  to  say  I 
believe  they  wouldn't  work  at  all;  and  of 
others,  that  the  labour  which  is  to  answer 
the  calls  of  the  day  is  the  one  best  suited 


12    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

to  their  genius.  Suppose  Sir  Robert  Peel 
were  to  write  to  you,  and,  enclosing  a 
cheque  for  twenty  thousand  pounds,  in- 
struct you  to  pension  any  fifty  deserving 
authors,  so  that  they  might  have  leisure  to 
retire  and  write  'great'  work;  on  whom 
would  you  fix?" 

The  dignity  of  literature,  however,  de- 
pends, not  on  its  rewards,  but  upon  the  dig- 
nity of  the  men  of  letters;  and  the  contempt 
that  was  felt  for  Grub  Street  in  the  eight- 
eenth century  was,  as  Thackeray  was  at 
pains  to  point  out,  largely  the  fault  of  Grub 
Street,  too  many  of  the  inhabitants  of  which 
were  intemperate,  improvident,  and  far  from 
respectable,  and  not  only  the  minor  lights 
but  some  of  the  great  men  also.  Things, 
happily,  have  changed,  and  if  Grub  Street 
is  still  with  us,  it  is  a  more  temperate,  more 
clean-living  neighbourhood  than  ever  it  was 
before,  and  its  inhabitants,  as  well  as  the 
literary  man  in  general,  have  a  lofty  ideal 
of  their  calling.  Jealousy  was  once  the 
bane  of  the  calling;  to-day  that  noxious 
passion  is  kept,  on  the  whole,  well  under 


The  Dignity  of  Literature      13 

control.  The  Croker-Macaulay  feud  could 
not  to-day  be  fought  out  in  the  quarterlies. 
"Human  nature  is  not  altered  since  Richard- 
son's time;  and  if  there  are  rakes,  male  and 
female,  as  there  were  a  hundred  years  since, 
there  are,  in  like  manner,  envious  critics  now, 
as  then,"  Thackeray  wrote  in  his  paper  on 
Fielding.  "How  eager  are  they  to  predict 
a  man's  fall,  how  unwilling  to  acknowledge 
his  rise!  If  a  man  write  a  popular  work,  he 
is  sure  to  be  snarled  at;  if  a  literary  man 
rise  to  eminence  out  of  his  profession,  all  his 
old  comrades  are  against  him.  They  can't 
pardon  his  success:  would  it  not  be  wiser 
for  gentlemen  of  the  pen  to  do  as  they  do  in 
France,  have  an  esprit  de  corps,  declare  that 
their  body  and  calling  are  as  honourable  as 
any  other,  feel  their  own  power,  and,  instead 
of  crying  down  any  member  of  their  pro- 
fession who  happens  to  light  on  a  prize, 
support  him  with  all  their  strength?  The 
condition  of  literary  men  might  be  very  soon 
changed  by  a  manly  literary  union  of  this 
kind." 
Thackeray,  towards  the  end  of  his  life, 


14    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

laid  down  once  for  all  the  qualities  that  en- 
sure the  dignity  of  the  calling  to  which  he 
belonged.  "What  ought  to  be  the  literary 
man's  point  of  honour  now-a-days?"  he 
wrote  in  a  "Roundabout  Paper."  "Suppose, 
friendly  reader,  you  are  one  of  the  craft; 
what  legacy  would  you  like  to  leave  to  your 
children?  First  of  all  (and  by  Heaven's 
gracious  help)  you  would  pray  and  strive  to 
give  them  such  an  endowment  of  love,  as 
should  last  certainly  for  all  their  lives,  and 
perhaps  be  transmitted  to  their  children. 
You  would  (by  the  same  aid  and  blessing) 
keep  your  honour  pure,  and  transmit  a 
name  unstained  to  those  who  have  a  right 
to  bear  it.  You  would,  though  this  quality 
of  giving  is  one  of  the  easiest  of  the  literary 
man's  qualities  —  you  would,  out  of  your 
earnings,  great  or  small,  be  able  to  help  a 
poor  brother  in  need,  to  dress  his  wounds, 
and,  if  it  were  but  twopence,  to  give  him 
succour.  .  .  .  You  will,  if  letters  be  your 
vocation,  find  saving  harder  than  giving  and 
spending.  To  save  be  your  endeavour  too, 
against  the  night's  coming  when  no  man  may 


The  Dignity  of  Literature      15 

work;  when  the  arm  is  weary  with  the  long 
day's  labour;  when  the  brain  perhaps  grows 
dark;  when  the  old,  who  can  labour  no  more, 
want  warmth  and  rest,  and  the  young  ones 
call  for  supper."  In  yet  another  "Round- 
about Paper"  Thackeray,  writing  after  the 
death  of  Washington  Irving  and  Macaulay, 
was  happy  to  point  his  arguments  on  the 
dignity  of  literature  by  showing  how  they 
fulfilled  his  ideal  of  what  a  man  of  letters 
should  be.  "'Be  a  good  man,  my  dear!9  One 
can't  but  think  of  these  last  words  of  the 
veteran  Chief  of  Letters,  who  had  tasted 
and  tested  the  value  of  worldly  success, 
admiration,  prosperity.  Was  Irving  not 
good,  and,  of  his  works,  was  not  his  life  the 
best  part?  In  his  family  gentle,  generous, 
good-humoured,  affectionate,  self-denying:  in 
society,  a  delightful  example  of  complete 
gentlemanhood;  quite  unspoiled  by  pros- 
perity; never  obsequious  to  the.  great  (or 
worse  still,  to  the  base  and  mean,  as  some 
public  men  are  forced  to  be  in  his  and  other 
countries);  eager  to  acknowledge  every  con- 
temporary's merit;  always  kind  and  affable 


1 6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

to  the  young  members  of  his  calling;  in 
his  professional  bargains  and  mercantile 
dealings  delicately  honest  and  grateful;  one 
of  the  most  charming  masters  of  our  lighter 
language;  the  constant  friend  to  us  and  our 
nation;  to  men  of  letters  doubly  dear,  not 
for  his  wit  and  genius  merely,  but  as  an  ex- 
emplar of  goodness,  probity,  and  pure  life. 
.  .  .  Here  are  two  examples  of  men  most 
differently  gifted;  each  pursuing  his  calling; 
each  speaking  his  truth  as  God  bade  him; 
each  honest  in  his  life;  just  and  irreproach- 
able in  his  dealings;  dear  to  his  friends; 
honoured  by  his  country;  beloved  at  his 
fireside.  It  has  been  the  fortunate  lot  of 
both  to  give  incalculable  happiness  and 
delight  to  the  world,  which  thanks  them  in 
return  with  an  immense  kindliness,  respect, 
affection.  It  may  not  be  our  chance,  brother 
scribe,  to  be  endowed  with  such  merit,  or 
rewarded  with  such  fame.  But  the  rewards 
of  these  men  are  rewards  paid  to  our  service. 
We  may  not  win  the  baton  or  epaulettes; 
but  God  give  us  strength  to  guard  the  honour 
of  the  flag!" 


The  Dignity  of  Literature      17 

To  such  qualities  as  these  two  men,  to 
mention  no  others,  possessed,  fame  comes 
second.  That  is  an  accident,  a  happy,  glori- 
ous accident  for  those  upon  whom  its  mantle 
falls.  It  may  come  with  a  first  book,  it  may 
come  in  middle  life,  it  may  come  at  the  end 
of  a  career  hitherto  obscure,  it  may  come 
after  death,  it  may  come  and  go,  it  may 
come  not  at  all.  A  man  can  but  do  his  best, 
and  take  such  reward  as  may  come  his  way. 
"The  literary  character,  let  us  hope  or  admit, 
writes  quite  honestly;  but  no  man  supposes 
he  would  work  perpetually  but  for  money. 
And  as  for  immortality,  it  is  quite  beside 
the  bargain,"  Thackeray  wrote.  "Is  it 
reasonable  to  look  for  it,  or  to  pretend  that 
you  are  actuated  by  a  desire  to  attain  it? 
Of  all  the  quill-drivers,  how  many  have 
ever  drawn  that  prodigious  prize?  Is  it 
even  fair  to  ask  that  many  should?  Out  of 
a  regard  for  poor  dear  prosperity  and  men  of 
letters  to  come,  let  us  be  glad  that  the  great 
immortality  number  comes  up  so  rarely. 
Mankind  would  have  no  time  otherwise, 
and  would  be  so  gorged  with  old  masterpieces, 


1 8    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

that  they  would  not  occupy  themselves  with 
new,  and  future  literary  men  would  have  no 
chance  of  a  livelihood."  There  are  great 
men  and  little  men,  working  in  the  field  of 
letters  as  in  other  fields,  and  all  cannot  hope 
for  the  spoils  that  come  to  the  victor.  "In 
the  battle  of  life  are  we  all  going  to  try  for 
the  honours  of  championship?  If  we  can 
do  our  duty,  if  we  can  keep  our  place  pretty 
honourably  throughout  the  combat,  let  us  say 
Laus  Deo  at  the  end  of  it,  as  the  firing  ceases, 
and  the  night  falls  upon  the  field."  Thus 
the  Weekday  Preacher  on  "The  Chances 
of  the  Literary  Profession."  "To  do  your 
work  honestly,  to  amuse  and  instruct  your 
reader  of  to-day,  to  die  when  your  time 
comes,  and  go  hence  with  as  clean  a  breast 
as  may  be;  may  these  be  all  yours  and  ours, 
by  God's  will.  Let  us  be  content  with  our 
status  as  literary  craftsmen,  telling  the  truth 
as  far  as  may  be,  hitting  no  foul  blow,  con- 
descending to  no  servile  puffery,  filling  not 
a  very  lofty,  but  a  manly  and  honourable 
part." 

"Ah!  ye  knights  of  the  pen!    May  honour 


The  Dignity  of  Literature     19 

be  your  shield  and  truth  tip  your  lances! 
Be  gentle  to  all  gentle  people.  Be  modest 
to  women.  Be  tender  to  children.  And  as 
for  the  Ogre  Humbug,  out  sword,  and  have 
at  him." 

In  this  passage  Thackeray  outlined  his  own 
course.  Truth  was  the  first  consideration  in 
his  eyes,  and  it  was  the  want  of  truth  in  such 
works  as  are  commonly  grouped  as  the  New- 
gate School  of  Fiction  that  made  him  attack 
them  as  being  dishonest  and  therefore  im- 
moral. "If  truth  is  not  always  pleasant,  at 
any  rate  truth  is  best,  from  whatever  chair 
—  from  those  whence  grave  writers  or  think- 
ers argue,  as  from  that  at  which  the  story- 
teller sits,"  Thackeray  wrote  in  the  Preface 
to  "Pendennis;"  and  elsewhere,  in  the 
lecture  on  "Charity  and  Humour,"  he  en- 
larged on  the  theme.  "I  can't  help  telling 
the  truth  as  I  view  it,  and  describing  what  I 
see.  To  describe  it  otherwise  than  it  seems 
to  me  would  be  falsehood  in  that  calling  in 
which  it  has  pleased  Heaven  to  place  me; 
treason  to  that  conscience  which  says  that 
men  are  weak;  that  truth  must  be  told; 


20    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

that  fault  must  be  owned;  that  pardon  must 
be  prayed  for;  and  that  Love  reigns  supreme 
over  all."  Thackeray  took  his  profession 
very  seriously,  and  never  undervalued  the 
responsibilities  of  the  writer,  even  of  the 
novelist,  who,  in  his  opinion,  should  be  a 
teacher.  "  I  assure  you  these  tokens  of  what 
I  can't  help  acknowledging  as  popularity, 
make  me  humble  as  well  as  grateful,  and 
make  me  feel  an  almost  awful  sense  of  the 
responsibility  which  falls  upon  a  man  in 
such  a  station.  Is  it  deserved  or  undeserved? 
—  Who  is  this  that  sets  up  to  preach  to  man- 
kind, and  to  laugh  at  many  things  which 
men  reverence?  I  hope  I  may  be  able  to 
tell  the  truth  always,  and  to  see  it  aright, 
according  to  the  eyes  which  God  Almighty 
gives  me.  And  if,  in  the  exercise  of  my 
calling,  I  get  friends  and  find  encouragement 
and  sympathy,  I  need  not  tell  you  how  very 
much  I  feel  and  am  thankful  for  this  kind  of 
support.  Indeed  I  can't  reply  lightly  upon 
this  subject  or  feel  otherwise  than  very  grave 
when  people  praise  me  as  you  do."  Thus 
he  wrote  to  Dr.  John  Brown,  who  had  been 


The  Dignity  of  Literature     21 

instrumental  in  organising  a  testimonial  to 
him;  and  in  reply  to  the  Rev.  Joseph  Sortain, 
who  had  sent  him  a  volume  of  sermons,  "I 
want,  too,"  he  wrote,  "to  say  in  my  way 
that  love  and  truth  are  the  greatest  of 
Heaven's  commandments  and  blessings  to  us; 
that  the  best  of  us,  the  many  especially  who 
pride  themselves  on  their  virtue  most,  are 
wretchedly  weak,  vain  and  selfish;  and  to 
preach  such  a  charity  at  least  as  a  common 
sense  of  our  shame  and  unworthiness  might 
inspire,  to  us  poor  people."  Therein  may  be 
found  Thackeray's  confession  of  faith  as  a 
novelist  and  weekday  preacher. 


CHAPTER    II 

Thackeray  as  a  Reader  and  Critic  of  Books 

SCARCELY  a  month  passes  without  an 
article  on  Thackeray  in  some  maga- 
zine or  review.  Reminiscences  of  Thackeray, 
Thackeray's  Homes  and  Haunts,  Thackeray's 
Originals,  Thackeray  in  the  United  States, 
Thackeray  as  an  Orator,  Thackeray  and 
Dickens,  Thackeray  as  a  Writer,  Thackeray 
as  Artist,  Thackeray  as  Art-Critic,  Thack- 
eray and  the  Stage,  Thackeray  and  Punch, 
are  among  recent  headings.  It  is  strange, 
therefore,  when  it  might  be  assumed  that 
this  author  had  been  treated  from  every 
standpoint,  to  find  that  no  one  has  thought 
it  worth  while  to  discourse  of  him  as  a  reader 
and  critic  of  books. 

As  a  boy  Thackeray  was  fond  of  books,  and 
at  Cambridge  he  was  an  omnivorous  read- 
er, principally,  however,  of  fiction,  poetry, 
and  history.  History,  indeed,  was  one  of 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books     23 

his  favourite  studies.  "Read  a  tremendous 
lot  of  history,"  he  advised  a  young  cousin 
one  day  as  they  were  leaving  the  Reading 
Room  of  the  British  Museum,  where  he  had 
been  searching  for  a  book  that  would  tell 
him,  not  of  the  battles  of  Wolfe,  the  hero  of 
Quebec,  but,  figuratively  speaking,  of  the 
colour  of  his  breeches.  Though  in  later 
years,  speaking  of  this  branch  of  learning, 
he  remarked  to  Mr.  Jeffreson:  "There 's 
nothing  new,  and  there  's  nothing  true,  and 
it  don't  much  signify,"  yet  as  a  young  man 
he  was  a  stickler  for  the  dignity  of  history. 
Reviewing  "The  Duchess  of  Marlborough's 
Private  Correspondence"  in  the  Times  (1838) 
he  expressed  his  disappointment  that  "the 
dignity  of  history  sadly  diminishes  as  we 
grow  better  acquainted  with  the  materials 
which  compose  it.  In  our  orthodox  history 
books,  the  characters  move  on  as  in  a  gaudy 
play-house  procession,  a  glittering  pageant 
of  kings  and  warriors  and  stately  ladies 
majestically  appearing  and  passing  away. 
Only  he  who  sits  very  near  the  stage  can  dis- 
cover of  what  poor  stuff  the  spectacle  is 


24    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

made.  The  kings  are  poor  creatures,  taken 
from  the  dregs  of  the  company;  the  noble 
knights  are  dirty  dwarfs  in  tin-foil;  the  fair 
ladies  are  painted  hags,  with  cracked  feath- 
ers and  soiled  trains.  One  wonders  how  gas 
and  distance  could  ever  have  rendered  them 
so  bewitching.  The  perusal  of  letters  like 
these  produces  a  very  similar  disenchantment, 
and  the  great  historical  figures  dwindle 
down  into  the  common  proportions  as  we 
come  to  view  them  closely.  Kings,  Ministers, 
and  Generals  form  the  principal  dramatis 
personnce;  and,  if  we  may  pursue  the  stage 
parallel  a  little  further,  eye  never  lighted 
upon  a  troupe  more  contemptible.  Weighty 
political  changes  had  been  worked  in  the 
country,  others  threatened  equally  great. 
Great  questions  were  agitated  —  whether  the 
Protestant  Religion  should  be  the  creed  of 
the  State,  and  the  Elector  of  Hanover  a 
King,  or  whether  Papacy  should  be  restored, 
and  James  III.  placed  on  the  throne  — 
whether  the  continental  despotism  aimed  at 
by  Louis  should  be  established,  or  the  war 
continued  to  maintain  the  balance  of  power 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books     25 

in  Europe  —  on  these  points  our  letter- 
writers  hardly  deign  to  say  a  word.  The 
political  question  is  whether  Harley  should 
be  in  or  Godolphin,  how  Mrs.  Masham,  the 
chambermaid,  can  be  checked  or  won  over, 
how  the  Duchess  of  Marlborough  can  regain 
her  lost  influence  over  the  queen,  or  whether 
the  Duke  is  strong  enough  to  do  without  it, 
can  force  his  Captain-Generalcy  for  life,  and 
compel  the  queen  to  ensure  to  his  daughters 
the  pension  and  places  of  their  mother."  If 
the  Duchess  of  Marlborough' s  correspond- 
ence disenchanted  Thackeray,  disgust  was 
the  result  of  a  perusal  of  a  volume  entitled 
"A  Diary  relative  to  George  IV.  and  Queen 
Caroline,"  and  he  reviewed  it  both  in  the 
Times  and  in  Eraser's  Magazine,  with  a 
virulence  that,  even  in  those  early  days, 
was  unusual  with  him.  "We  may  read  this 
diary,"  Thackeray  concluded  his  review  in 
the  Times,  "and  say,  indeed,  it  is  a  ridicule  to 
bear  a  towering  name,  or  to  pretend  to  the 
old  virtue  which  characterized  it,  or  to  the 
honour  which  formerly  belonged  to  it.  It 
is  ridicule  indeed  to  come  of  a  noble  race, 


26    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

and  uphold  the  well-known  honour  of  an 
ancient  line.  What  matters  it  if  you  can 
read  in  your  family  record  the  history  of  a 
thousand  years  of  loyalty  and  courage,  of 
all  that  is  noble  in  sentiment,  honest  and 
brave  in  action?  —  The  pride  of  ancestors 
is  a  faded  superstition  — the  emulation  of 
them  a  needless  folly.  There  is  no  need  now 
to  be  loyal  to  your  prince,  or  tender  to  his 
memory.  Take  his  bounty  while  living, 
share  his  purse  and  his  table,  gain  his  confi- 
dence, and  learn  his  secrets,  flatter  him, 
cringe  to  him,  vow  to  him  an  unbounded 
fidelity  —  and  when  he  is  dead,  write  a  diary 
and  betray  him!"  It  was  in  quite  another 
spirit  that  he  criticised  Carlyle's  "French 
Revolution."  While  regretting  that  "never 
did  a  man's  style  so  mar  his  subject  and  dim 
his  genius,"  Thackeray  admitted,  almost  to 
their  fullest  extent,  the  highest  qualities  with 
which  the  most  enthusiastic  of  the  historian's 
followers  endowed  him;  praised  him  for  his 
lofty  and  noble  impartiality;  and  especially 
singled  out  for  admiration  the  story  of  the 
fall  of  the  Bastille,  and  the  arrest  and  trial 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    27 

of  Danton  and  his  colleagues.  "The  reader 
needs  not  be  told  that  this  book  is  written 
in  an  eccentric  prose,  here  and  there  dis- 
figured by  grotesque  conceits  and  images; 
but,  for  all  this,  it  betrays  most  extraordi- 
nary powers  —  learning,  observation,  and 
humour,"  Thackeray  wrote.  "Above  all,  it 
has  no  CANT.  It  teems  with  sound,  hearty 
philosophy  (besides  certain  transcendental- 
isms which  we  do  not  pretend  to  understand), 
it  possesses  genius,  if  any  book  ever  did.  It 
wanted  no  more  for  keen  critics  to  cry  fie 
upon  it!  Clever  critics  have  such  an  eye 
for  genius,  that  when  Mr.  Bulwer  published 
his  forgotten  book  concerning  Athens,  they 
discovered  that  no  historian  was  like  to  him; 
and  that  he,  on  his  Athenean  hobby,  had  quite 
outtrotted  safely  Mr.  Gibbon,  and  with  the 
same  creditable  unanimity  they  cried  down 
Mr.  Carlyle's  history,  opening  upon  it  a 
hundred  little  piddling  sluices  of  small  wit, 
destined  to  wash  the  book  sheer  away;  and 
lo!  the  book  remains,  it  is  only  the  poor  wit 
which  has  run  dry."  Carlyle,  however,  was 
not  quite  satisfied  with  this  praise.  "I 


28    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

understand  there  have  been  many  reviews 
of  a  mixed  character,"  he  wrote  to  his  brother. 
"I  got  one  in  the  Times  last  week.  The 
writer  is  one  Thackeray,  a  half  monstrous 
Cornish  giant,  kind  of  painter,  Cambridge 
man,  and  Paris  newspaper  correspondent, 
who  is  now  writing  for  his  life  in  London. 
.  .  .  His  article  is  rather  like  him,  and,  I 
suppose,  calculated  to  do  the  book  good." 

It  is  not  generally  known  that  Thackeray 
on  two  occasions  nearly  entered  the  lists  as 
an  historian.  The  first  time  was  in  1844, 
when  he  undertook  to  write  a  Life  of  Talley- 
rand for  Messrs.  Chapman  and  Hall.  The 
biography  was  actually  advertised,  but 
Thackeray  went  Eastward  Ho!  and  the 
publishers  issued  in  its  place  the  "  Notes  of 
a  Journey  from  Cornhill  to  Grand  Cairo." 
The  second  time  was  sixteen  years  later, 
when  he  was  asked  to  continue  Macaulay's 
history.  This  offer  he  neither  accepted  nor 
yet  definitely  refused.  "Queen  Anne  has 
long  been  my  ambition,"  he  wrote  to  Sir 
John  (then  Dr.)  Skelton,  "but  she  will  take 
many  a  long  year's  labour,  and  I  can't  ask 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    29 

any  other  writer  to  delay  on  my  account. 
At  the  beginning  of  the  year  I  had  prepared 
an  announcement  stating  that  I  was  engaged 
on  that  history;  but  kept  it  back,  as  it  was 
necessary  that  I  should  pursue  my  old  trade 
of  novelist  for  some  time  yet  to  come.  Mean- 
while her  image  stands  before  St.  Paul's,  for 
all  the  world  to  look  at,  and  who  knows  but 
some  one  else  may  be  beforehand  with  both 
of  us,  and  sketch  her  off  while  we  are  only 
laying  the  palette." 

Thackeray's  first  known  pronouncement 
about  a  book  occurs  in  a  letter  written  at 
Cambridge,  saying  he  would  bring  home  with 
him  Shelley's  "Revolt  of  Islam,"  "a  most 
beautiful  poem  —  though  the  story  is  absurd, 
and  the  republican  sentiments  conveyed  in 
it,  if  possible,  more  absurd."  But,  after  a 
short  interval,  he  wrote  that  he  would  not 
take  the  poem  with  him  because  "it  is  an 
odd  kind  of  book,  containing  poetry  that 
would  induce  one  to  read  it  through,  and 
sentiments  which  might  strongly  incline 
one  to  throw  it  on  the  fire."  Shelley's  works 
certainly  interested  him  at  this  time,  and 


30    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

when  the  scheme  of  a  university  magazine 
to  be  called  The  Chimcera,  was  mooted,  he 
volunteered  to  contribute  an  "Essay  on 
Shelley."  It  is  said  that  he  actually  wrote 
this  paper  at  Paris  during  the  Long  Vaca- 
tion in  1829,  but  the  bibliographers  have 
failed  to  trace  the  publication  of  either 
magazine  or  article. 

During  the  few  months  Thackeray  spent 
at  Weimar  he  read  Korner,  and  sent  transla- 
tions of  some  poems  to  his  mother.  He  also 
read  "Faust,"  but  without  much  enthusiasm. 
"Of  course  I  am  delighted,"  he  said;  "but 
not  to  that  degree  I  expected."  On  the 
other  hand,  he  had  unbounded  admiration 
for  Schiller.  "I  have  been  reading  Shake- 
speare in  German.  If  I  could  ever  do  the 
same  for  Schiller  in  English,  I  should  be 
proud  of  having  conferred  a  benefit  on  my 
country.  I  do  believe  him  to  be  after  Shake- 
speare, 'the  poet'!"  He  never  attempted 
this  gigantic  task,  though  when  a  certain 
Fraulein,  whom  he  affected  to  admire,  lost 
her  heart  to  a  gentleman  in  the  Guards,  with 
magnificent  waistcoats  and  ten  thousand  a 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    31 

year,  he  bemoaned  his  fate  by  translating 
merrily  some  lines  of  his  favourite  author :  — 

"The  world  is  empty, 
This  heart  is  dead. 
Its  hopes  and  its  aches 
For  ever  are  fled." 

When  Thackeray  was  told  that  some  one 
had  translated  "Wilhelm  Tell"  into  English, 
and  while  so  doing  had  improved  the  play,  he 
replied  that  that  was  quite  unnecessary.  No 
doubt  this  preference  for  the  lesser  genius 
may  be  traced  to  the  fact  that  while  "Faust," 
in  its  essence,  is  metaphysical,  the  predomi- 
nant feature  of  "Wilhelm  Tell"  is  the  love 
of  home.  Love  of  home  appealed  to  him, 
while  the  former  did  not  attract  him,  for 
though  after  reading  Cousin's  "History  of 
Philosophy,"  he  admitted  that  he  had  been 
so  interested  that  he  thought  the  excitement 
of  metaphysics  must  equal  almost  that  of 
gambling,  it  may  safely  be  assumed  that  he 
never  pursued  the  study. 

Thackeray's  reading  when  he  was  abroad 
in  the  thirties  was  not  very  deep.  Of  the 
great  French  writers  he  found  little  to  say. 


32    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Montaigne,  as  one  may  guess  from  his  later 
writings,  he  loved.  He  did  not  think  Victor 
Hugo  more  poetical  than  Voltaire;  and, 
while  admiring  "La  Peau  de  Chagrin," 
found  the  characterisation  feeble.  He  would 
have  liked  Scribe  if  all  the  characters  in  the 
plays  did  not  break  the  Seventh  Command- 
ment. "Of  the  drama,  Victor  Hugo  and 
Dumas  are  the  well-known  and  respectable 
guardians,"  he  wrote  in  1840.  "Every  piece 
Victor  Hugo  has  written  since  *  Hernani '  has 
contained  a  monster  —  a  delightful  monster, 
saved  by  one  virtue.  There  is  Triboulet, 
a  foolish  monster;  Lucrece  Borgia,  a  ma- 
ternal monster;  Mary  Tudor,  a  religious 
monster;  Monsieur  Quasimodo,  a  hump- 
backed monster;  and  others  that  might  be 
named  whose  monstrosities  we  are  induced 
to  pardon  —  nay,  admiringly  to  witness  — 
because  they  are  agreeably  mingled  with 
some  exquisite  display  of  affection.  And, 
as  the  great  Hugo  has  one  monster  to  each 
play,  the  great  Dumas  has,  ordinarily,  half- 
a-dozen,  to  whom  murder  is  nothing;  com- 
mon intrigue,  and  simple  breakage  of  the 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books     33 

before-mentioned  Commandment,  nothing; 
but  who  live  and  move  in  a  vast  delightful 
complication  of  crime  that  cannot  be  easily 
conceived  in  England,  much  less  described." 
But,  later,  he  was  a  fervent  admirer  of  the 
" Mousquetaires "  series.  "All  the  forenoon 
I  read  with  intense  delight  a  novel  called 
*Le  Vicomte  de  Bragelonne,'  "  he  told  Mrs. 
Brookfield;  "a  continuation  of  the  famous 
*  Mousquetaires,'  and  just  as  interesting, 
keeping  one  panting  from  volume  to  volume, 
longing  for  more."  "Dumas  is  wonderful. 
He  is  better  than  Walter  Scott,"  he  said  on 
another  occasion.  "I  came  near  writing  a 
book  on  the  same  subject,  *Les  Trois  Mous- 
quetaires/ and  taking  Monsieur  D'Artagnan 
for  my  hero.  D'Artagnan  was  a  real  char- 
acter of  the  age  of  Louis  XIV.,  and  wrote  his 
own  'Memoires.'  I  remember  picking  up 
a  dingy  copy  of  them  on  an  old  bookstall  in 
London,  price  sixpence,  and  intended  to 
make  something  of  it.  But  Dumas  got 
ahead  of  me."  "His  good  spirits  never  seem 
to  change,"  Thackeray  said  to  John  Esten 
Cooke.  "He  amuses  you  and  keeps  you  in 


34    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

a  good  humour,  which  is  not  the  effect  pro- 
duced on  me  by  many  writers.  Some  books 
please  me  and  enliven  me,  and  others  de- 
press me.  I  never  could  read  'Don  Quixote' 
with  pleasure;  the  book  makes  me  sad." 
Thackeray  never  liked  the  works  of  Eugene 
Sue.  "Eugene  Sue  has  written  a  very  great 
number  of  novels  —  beginning  with  mari- 
time novels  in  the  Satanic  style,  so  to  speak, 
full  of  crime  and  murder  of  every  descrip- 
tion. He  met  in  his  early  work  with  no  very 
great  success.  He  gave  up  the  indecencies  of 
language  and  astonished  the  world  with 
'Mathilde'  three  years  since"  (i.  e.,  in  1842), 
"which  had  the  singular  quality  among 
French  novels  of  containing  no  improprieties 
of  expression.  In  my  mind  it  is  one  of  the 
most  immoral  books  in  the  world.  'The 
Mysteries  of  Paris'  followed,  with  still 
greater  success,  and  the  same  cleverness  of 
construction,  and  the  same  sham  virtue." 
This  opinion  he  expressed  in  a  letter  to  Mac- 
vey  Napier,  the  editor  of  the  Edinburgh 
Review,  to  which  periodical  he  desired  to 
contribute.  The  outcome  of  the  corre- 


NATHANIEL    PARKER    WILLIS 
After  an  engraving  from  the  drawing  by  G.  W.  Flagg 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    35 

spondence  was  an  amusing  article  on  N.  P. 
Willis's  "Dashes  at  Life." 

While  in  Paris  Thackeray  translated  "Le 
Bon  Ange,"  verses  introduced  into  Dumas' 
play,  "Don  Juan  de  Marana,"  which  may 
be  found  in  "The  Paris  Sketch  Book,"  and 
he  also  wrote  the  delightful  "Imitations  of 
Beranger."  In  Germany  he  contrived  to 
imbue  himself  with  the  spirit  in  which  Uhland 
wrote  his  poems;  and  among  the  "Ballads" 
may  be  found  admirable  renderings  of  "Es 
pfliickte  Bliimlein  mannigfalt"  ("The  Chap- 
let"),  and  "Da  liegen  sie  alle,  die  grauen 
Hohen"  ("The  King  on  the  Tower"). 

It  was  in  the  National  Standard,  of  which 
he  was  eventually  proprietor  and  editor, 
that  Thackeray's  first  "official"  criticism 
appeared.  The  book  reviewed  was  Robert 
Montgomery's  "Woman:  the  Angel  of  Life." 
The  notice  is  only  remarkable  for  the  con- 
cluding sentences,  which  follow  an  extract 
of  fourteen  lines  of  the  poem.  "These  are 
nice  verses.  On  examination,  we  find  that 
the  compositor,  by  some  queer  blunder,  has 
printed  them  backwards;  but  as  it  does  not 


3  6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

seem  to  spoil  the  sense,  we  shall  not  give  him 
the  trouble  to  set  them  up  again.  They  are 
as  good  one  way  as  the  other."  Mr.  Yellow- 
plush  may  have  been  thinking  of  this  when 
he  took  a  sentence  from  "The  Sea-Captain," 
a  play  by  "  Sawed wadgeorgeearllittnbulwig;" 
tried  it  every  way,  "backards,  forards,  and 
in  all  sorts  of  trancepositions,"  and  found 
"all  which  are  as  sensible  as  the  fust 
passidge." 

There  is  no  doubt  that  at  this  time 
Thackeray,  like  Pendennis,  would  not  have 
hesitated  at  twenty-four  hours'  notice  to 
pass  an  opinion  upon  the  greatest  scholars 
or  to  give  a  judgment  upon  the  encyclopaedia. 

One  of  his  earliest  Fraser  papers  was  a 
violent  onslaught  on  the  "Keepsake"  sort 
of  production.  "  Miss  Landon,  Miss  Mitford, 
or  my  Lady  Blessington,  writes  a  song  .  .  . 
about  'Water-Lily,'  chilly,  stilly,  shivering 
beside  a  streamlet,  plighted,  blighted,  love- 
benighted,  falsehood  sharper  than  a  gimlet, 
lost  affection,  recollection,  cut  connexion, 
tears  in  torrents,  true-love  token,  spoken, 
broken,  sighing,  dying,  girl  of  Florence;  and 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    37 

so  on.  The  poetry  is  quite  worthy  of  the 
picture,  and  a  little  sham  sentiment  is  em- 
ployed to  illustrate  a  little  sham  art.  .  .  . 
It  cannot  be  supposed  that  Miss  Landon,  a 
woman  of  genius  —  Miss  Mitford,  a  lady  of 
exquisite  wit  and  taste  —  should,  of  their 
own  accord,  sit  down  to  indite  namby- 
pamby  verses  about  silly,  half -decent  pic- 
tures; or  that  Jenkins,  Powis,  Meadows  and 
Co.  are  not  fatigued  with  the  paltry  labour 
assigned  to  them.  .  .  .  Who  sets  them  to 
this  wretched  work?  To  paint  those  eternal 
fancy  portraits  of  ladies  in  voluptuous  atti- 
tudes and  various  stages  of  deshabille,  to 
awaken  the  dormant  sensibilities  of  misses 
in  their  teens,  or  tickle  the  worn-out  palates 
of  rakes  and  roues?  What  a  noble  occupa- 
tion for  a  poet!  What  a  delicate  task  for  an 
artist!" 

He  was  as  bitter  when  writing  of  Miss 
Landon's  "Ethel  Churchill"  and  of  Mrs. 
Trollope's  "Vicar  of  Wrexhill,"  in  which  she 
abused  those  who  interpreted  the  Scriptures 
in  other  ways  than  she.  "Oh!  we  repeat 
once  more,  that  ladies  would  make  puddings 


38    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

and  mend  stockings!  that  they  would  not 
meddle  with  religion  (what  is  styled  reli- 
gion, we  mean),  except  to  pray  to  God, 
to  live  quietly  among  their  families  and 
more  lovingly  among  their  neighbours.  .  .  . 
Always  bitter  against  the  Pharisees,  she  does 
as  the  Pharisees  do.  It  is  vanity,  very  likely, 
which  leads  these  people  to  use  God's  name  so 
often,  and  to  devote  all  to  perdition  who  do 
not  coincide  in  their  peculiar  notions.  .  .  . 
There  was  as  great  a  sin  in  His  eyes  as  that 
of  the  poor  erring  woman  —  it  was  the  sin 
of  pride."  At  this  time  Thackeray  was 
asked  to  a  party,  and  was  about  to  accept, 
but  he  heard  that  Mrs.  Trollope  would  be 
among  the  guests.  "O,  by  Jove!  I  can't 
come,"  he  exclaimed.  "I  Ve  just  cut  up 
her  *  Vicar  of  Wrexhill*  in  a  review.  I  think 
she  tells  lies." 

When  "Ernest  Maltravers "  came  into 
Thackeray's  hands,  he  applied  the  lash  with 
the  utmost  vigour.  In  his  zeal  for  the  pure 
and  healthy  in  literature,  he  went  too  far, 
and  showed  what  might  easily  have  been 
construed  as  personal  animus  against  the 


i 


C    _i 
C     £» 

5  £ 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    39 

author,  though  it  is  certain  none  existed. 

When  he  came  to  forty  years  he  was  sorry 

for  what  he  had  written,  and  asked  pardon 

of  the  author  of  "The  Caxtons,"  especially 

for   two    performances    among    the    critical 

and  biographical  works  of  the  erudite  Mr. 

Yellowplush.     Like  most  young  writers,  he 

sought  for  the   blemishes   rather  than   the 

virtues  of  books  sent  to  him  for  review.    "I 

suppose  we  all  begin  by  being  too  savage," 

he  said  in  after  days;  "I  know  one  who  did" 

He  grew  more  gentle  as  the  years  passed, 

and  the  parodies  in  Punch  were  certainly 

written  without  malice.     He  laughed  at  the 

weaknesses  of  his  victims,  but  the  laugh  was 

kindly.     "I  hate  Juvenal,"  he  wrote  to  Mr. 

Hannay,  soon  after  "Esmond"  appeared.  "I 

mean,  I  think  him  a  truculent  brute,  and  I 

like  Horace  better  than  you  do,  and  rate 

Churchill   much   lower;   and   as   for   Swift, 

you  have  n't  made  me  alter  my  opinion,  I 

admire,  or  rather  admit,  his  power  as  much 

as  you  do;  but  I  don't  admire  that  kind  of 

power  so  much  as  I  did  fifteen  years  ago,  or 

twenty,  shall  we  say?    Love  is  a  higher  in- 


4°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

tellectual  exercise  than  Hatred;  and  when 
you  get  one  or  two  more  of  those  young  ones 
you  write  so  pleasantly  about,  you  '11  come 
over  to  the  side  of  the  kind  wags,  I  think, 
rather  than  the  cruel  ones." 

It  was  probably  while  Thackeray  was  at 
Cambridge  that  he  laid  the  foundation  of 
his  love  for  the  writers  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  In  his  Lectures,  however,  it  is  of 
the  men  and  their  lives  rather  than  of  their 
books  he  treated.  Yet  here  and  there  are 
critical  remarks.  Swift  he  reluctantly  ad- 
mitted to  possess  a  surprising  humour,  noble, 
just,  and  honest  satire,  and  the  power  of 
perfect  imagery:  "the  greatest  wit  of  all 
times,"  "an  immense  genius."  But  it  is 
obvious  that  of  all  the  writings  he  preferred 
the  "Journal  to  Stella,"  than  which,  he  de- 
clared, there  was  "nothing  more  manly, 
more  tender,  more  exquisitely  touching." 
He  could  not  refuse  to  see  Sterne's  wit, 
humour,  and  pathos,  but  he  disliked  his 
pose:  "he  used  to  blubber  perpetually  in  his 
study,  and  finding  his  tears  infectious,  and 
that  they  brought  him  a  great  popularity, 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    41 

he  exercised  the  lucrative  gift  of  weeping; 
he  utilised  it,  and  cried  on  every  occasion." 
He  was  prejudiced  against  both  these  writers, 
and  in  a  letter  to  a  correspondent  who  had 
lent  him  some  Sterne  MSS.,  one  reason  may 
be  discovered:  "Of  course  any  man  is  wel- 
come to  believe  as  he  likes  except  a  parson; 
and  I  can't  help  looking  upon  Swift  and 
Sterne  as  a  couple  of  traitors  and  renegades 
.  .  .  with  a  scornful  pity  for  them  in  spite 
of  all  their  genius  and  their  greatness."  For 
Congreve,  Wycherley,  Farquhar,  and  their 
merry  and  shameless  Comic  Muse  with  the 
libertine  heroes  and  the  wanton  heroines  he 
had  no  liking.  "A  touch  of  Steele's  tender- 
ness is  worth  all  his  [Congreve's]  finery;  a 
flash  of  Swift's  lightning,  a  beam  of  Addi- 
son's  pure  sunshine,  and  his  tawdry  play- 
house taper  is  invisible."  It  was  not  as  the 
author  of  "Cato,"  nor  of  the  poem  celebrat- 
ing the  victor  of  Blenheim  that  Addison 
attracted  him,  but  as  "  a  Tatler  of  small  talk 
and  a  Spectator  of  Mankind."  "He  came 
in  that  artificial  age,  and  began  to  speak  with 
his  noble,  natural  voice.  He  came,  the  gentle 


42    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

satirist,  who  hit  no  unfair  blow,  the  kind 
judge  who  castigated  only  in  smiling." 

Thackeray  loved  Steele,  whom  he  declared 
the  founder  of  sentimental  writing  in  Eng- 
lish, and  the  first  author  to  pay  a  manly 
homage  to  woman.  To  be  natural  was  a 
short  cut  to  the  heart  of  the  author  of 
"Vanity  Fair,"  and  on  this  ground  he  paid 
tribute  to  Steele  and  to  Goldsmith,  with  his 
simple  songs  of  love  and  beauty.  He  could 
not  too  highly  praise  "The  Deserted  Village," 
"The  Vicar  of  Wakefield,"  or  the  two  famous 
plays.  Besides  Goldsmith,  his  favourite 
poets  seem  to  have  been  Prior  and  Gay, 
"Sweet  lyric  singers,"  he  styled  them.  Prior, 
he  regarded  as  the  easiest,  the  richest,  the 
most  charmingly  humorous  of  English  lyrical 
poets;  while  Gay  charmed  him  by  the  force 
of  simple  melody  and  artless  ringing  laughter. 
He  singled  out  the  six  pastorals  called  "The 
Shepherd's  Week,"  and  the  burlesque  poem 
of  "Trivia,"  and  remarked  that  "these  are 
to  poetry  what  charming  little  Dresden 
figures  are  to  sculpture:  graceful,  minikin, 
fantastic,  with  a  certain  beauty  always  ac- 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    43 

company  ing  them."  Pope  he  unhesitatingly 
ranked  highest  among  the  poets,  brightest 
among  the  English  wits  and  humourists,  and 
the  greatest  literary  artist  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Before  Fielding  and  Smollett  he 
bowed  low,  as  a  subject  before  his  sovereign. 
"Humphrey  Clinker"  he  thought  the  most 
amusing  story  written  since  the  goodly  art 
of  novel-writing  began,  and  he  pronounced 
"Peregrine  Pickle"  "excellent  for  its  liveli- 
ness and  spirit,  and  wonderful  for  its  atro- 
cious vulgarity."  He  preferred  both  these 
writers  to  Richardson,  though  he  admitted 
that  "Clarissa"  had  one  of  the  best  managed 
surprises  he  had  read;  but  his  favourite 
author  was,  of  course,  Fielding,  who  may  be 
looked  upon  as  the  literary  god-father  of  his 
famous  successor.  "I  have  just  got  two  new 
novels  from  the  library  by  Mr.  Fielding," 
he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Brookfield  in  1845;  "the 
one  is  *  Amelia,'  the  most  delightful  portrait 
of  a  woman  that  surely  ever  was  penned; 
the  other  is  *  Joseph  Andrews,'  which  gives 
me  no  particular  pleasure,  for  it  is  both  coarse 
and  careless,  and  the  author  makes  an  absurd 


44    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

brag  of  his  twopenny  learning,  upon  which 
he  values  himself  evidently  more  than  upon 
the  best  of  his  own  qualities."  He  naturally 
does  not  think  Tom  Jones  a  virtuous  char- 
acter, and  he  protests  against  the  author's 
evident  liking  and  admiration  for  his  hero, 
but  "as  a  picture  of  manners,  the  novel  of 
'Torn  Jones'  is  indeed  exquisite;  as  a  work 
of  construction,  quite  a  wonder;  the  by- 
play of  wisdom;  the  power  of  observation; 
the  multiplied  felicitous  turns  and  thoughts; 
the  varied  character  of  the  great  Comic 
Epic:  keep  the  reader  in  a  perpetual  ad- 
miration and  curiosity."  Years  before,  in 
the  last  article  he  wrote  for  the  Times,  he 
had  paid  tribute  to  this  master  of  fiction. 
"What  is  especially  worthy  of  remark  is 
the  masterly  manner  in  which  the  author 
paints  the  good  part  of  those  equivocal 
characters  that  he  brings  upon  his  stage;  in 
*  Amelia*  James  has  his  generosity,  and 
his  silly  wife  her  good-nature;  Matthews 
her  starts  of  kindness;  and  Old  Bath,  in  his 
sister's  dressing-gown,  cooking  possets  for 
her,  is  really  an  amiable  object,  whom  we 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    45 

like  while  we  laugh  at  him.  A  great  deal 
of  tenderness  and  love  goes  along  with  this 
laughter,  and  it  was  this  mixed  feeling  that 
our  author  liked  so  to  indulge  himself,  and 
knew  so  well  how  to  excite  in  others.  When- 
ever he  has  to  relate  an  action  of  benevolence, 
honest  Fielding  kindles  as  he  writes  it.  Some 
writers  of  fiction  have  been  accused  of  falling 
in  a  passion  with  their  bad  characters;  these 
our  author  treats  with  a  philosophic  calmness 
—  it  is  when  he  comes  to  the  good  that  he 
grows  enthusiastic;  you  fancy  that  you  see 
the  tears  in  his  manly  eyes,  nor  does  he  care 
to  disguise  any  of  the  affectionate  sympathies 
of  his  great  heart.  This  is  a  defect  in  art, 
perhaps,  but  a  very  charming  one."  It  was 
not  only  Fielding's  matter  but  also  his  man- 
ner that  extorted  Thackeray's  praise.  "My 
English  would  have  been  much  better  if  I 
had  read  Fielding  before  I  was  ten,"  he  once 
remarked.  And  because  compliments  did 
not  flow  from  him  too  easily  this  has  been 
recorded.  Another  magnificent  tribute  he 
paid  to  a  great  historian:  "To  have  your 
name  mentioned  by  Gibbon  is  like  having  it 


4 6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

written  on  the  dome  of  St.  Peter's.    Pilgrims 
from  all  the  world  admire  and  behold  it." 

For  his  contemporaries,  however,  so  long 
as  their  works  were  free  from  vulgarity,  af- 
fectation, and  snobbishness,  Thackeray  usu- 
ally contrived  to  find  pleasant  words.  He 
wrote  an  appreciative  review  of  Macaulay's 
"Essays,"  when  they  were  first  collected  in 
book  form.  He  pronounced  "The  Song  of 
the  Shirt"  to  be  the  finest  lyric  ever  written; 
and  regarded  Douglas  Jerrold  as  his  most 
important  rival  on  the  staff  of  Punch.  "Jane 
Eyre"  he  mentioned  as  the  master-work  of 
a  great  genius,  while  for  Tennyson's  writings 
he  had  the  most  unbounded  admiration. 
Lytton  he  praised  for  the  example  he  set  to 
other  authors  by  being  "  thoroughly  literate; " 
and  many  years  before,  he  wrote  "Cod- 
lingsby"  he  had  praised  "Coningsby"  in 
the  Pictorial  Times.  Lever  pleased  him, 
but  he  insisted  that  this  author's  character- 
istic was  not  humour,  but  sentiment.  Many 
a  friendly  puff  did  he  give  to  Dickens,  both 
in  the  lectures  and  in  articles.  He  was, 
however,  constrained  to  admit  that  his  great 


Reader  and  Critic  of  Books    47 

contemporary  was  not  a  deep  thinker,  though 
"he  has  a  clear  and  bright-eyed  intelligence, 
which  is  better  than  philosophy.  I  think  he 
is  equal  to  Fielding  and  Smollett  —  at  any 
rate  to  Smollett.  He  is  not  such  a  scholar 
as  Fielding  was."  "He  knows  that  my  books 
are  a  protest  against  his  —  that  if  the  one 
set  are  true,  the  other  must  be  false.  But 
*  Pickwick'  is  an  exception;  it  is  a  capital 
book.  It  is  like  a  glass  of  good  English  ale." 
It  may  confidently  be  assumed  that  Thack- 
eray had  not  much  doubt  as  to  which  set  of 
books  was  right. 

It  cannot  be  contended  that  Thackeray 
was  a  great  critic.  Indeed  there  is  no  doubt 
but  that,  as  a  rule,  he  preferred  second-rate 
books  of  the  first-class  to  the  greatest.  For 
instance,  while  as  a  matter  of  course  he  ad- 
mitted that  Milton  was  a  great  poet,  he 
added  that  "he  was  such  a  bore  that  no  one 
could  read  him."  Whatever  one  may  think 
of  the  discernment  of  a  man  who  says  that, 
it  is  impossible  to  doubt  his  honesty.  He 
was  often  led  away  by  the  character  of  the 
author  whose  works  he  was  criticising.  He 


48     Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

disapproved  of  Swift  and  Sterne,  and  rather 
grudgingly  admitted  their  qualities;  but  he 
gladly  praised  Pope,  whom  he  loved  because 
of  his  infirmity,  and  because  of  the  love  the 
poet  bore  his  mother.  His  judgments  came 
from  the  heart  rather  than  the  intellect.  It 
was  fortunate  when  these  coincided.  "St. 
Charles,"  he  said  to  Edward  FitzGerald, 
in  a  third-floor  in  Charlotte  Street,  putting 
one  of  Charles  Lamb's  letters  to  his  forehead, 
remembering  his  devotion  to  his  half-mad 
sister.  "Humour  is  wit  and  love,"  he  said 
in  the  lecture  on  "Charity  and  Humour," 
"  and  the  best  humour  is  that  which  contains 
most  humanity,  that  which  is  flavoured 
throughout  with  tenderness  and  kindness." 
In  that  short  passage  is  contained  the  keynote 
of  all  his  criticism.  Above  all,  it  was  neces- 
sary to  be  sincere  to  ensure  a  favourable  ver- 
dict from  the  man  whose  proud  boast  it  was : — 

"Stranger!  I  have  never  writ  a  flattery, 
Nor  signed  the  page  that  register'd  a  lie." 


CHAPTER    III 


A  WELL-KNOWN  critic  remarked  many 
years  ago  that  if  in  England  you  write 
poetry  by  profession,  however  bad  that 
poetry  may  be,  you  are  a  poet;  but  if  you 
are  a  merchant,  a  lawyer,  a  novelist,  any- 
body, you  do  not  count  as  a  poet,  for  then 
the  prevailing  feeling  is:  "What  business 
have  you  as  a  practical  man  to  make  such 
an  ass  of  yourself?"  This  statement,  the 
truth  of  which  as  regards  the  general  reader 
cannot  be  controverted,  may  account  in 
part  for  the  comparative  neglect  of  Thack- 
eray's ballads;  while  a  second  reason  is,  no 
doubt,  that  his  poetry  has  been  over- 
shadowed by  his  novels;  and  a  third  cause 
of  neglect  may  be  found  in  the  lamentable 
fact  that  light  verse  does  not  meet  with  much 
encouragement  in  this  country.  The  aver- 


50    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

age  Englishman  takes  poetry  only  a  few 
degrees  less  seriously  than  he  takes  his  Bible; 
as  something  only  to  be  approached,  meta- 
phorically speaking,  after  fasting  and  with 
prayer.  He  has  the  feeling  that  it  is  almost 
irreverent  to  read  light  verse:  it  comes  as 
a  shock  —  as  if,  when  prepared  for  a  deluge, 
there  came  only  a  slight  shower  of  rain.  Still, 
though  there  has  been  no  Heine  in  Eng- 
lish literature,  and,  as  regards  the  majority, 
our  poets  have  lacked  the  light  touch  of  the 
French  petit-maitre,  we  can  boast  of  several 
writers  of  really  good  occasional  and  hu- 
morous verse  in  the  nineteenth  century: 
Hood,  Barham,  Calverley,  Locker-Lampson, 
Gilbert,  and  the  always  delightful  Austin 
Dobson.  None  the  less,  Thackeray's  ballads 
and  verses  have  been  accorded  so  little  at- 
tention that  Mr.  Whibley  in  his  recent 
interesting  monograph  on  that  author  did 
not  even  mention  them. 

The  love  of  versifying  was  in  Thackeray's 
blood,  and  even  as  a  child  he  wrote  rhyming 
lines  under  his  own  drawings  of  the  heroes 
of  the  nursery,  of  young  Ned  Torre,  of  Dicky 


THACKERAYS  DRAWING  FOR  THE  BALLAD  OF     LITTLE 
MISS  PERKINS  " 

From  a  manuscript  in  the  British  Museum 


Thackeray's  Ballads  51 

Snooks  and  Tom  Spry,  of  dear  Suky  Jones 
and  little  Miss  Perkins. 

As  a  boy  at  school  Thackeray  parodied 
the  hyper-sentimental  "Violets"  of  Letitia 
Elizabeth  Landon,  from  which  it  may  be 
deduced  that  even  at  a  very  early  age  he 
had  a  keen  sense  of  the  ridiculous;  and  before 
he  left  the  Charterhouse  he  wrote  a  Holy- 
day  song,  a  few  verses  of  which  may  here 
be  given  as  a  curiosity: 

"Now  let  us  dance  and  sing 
While  Carthusian  bells  do  ring; 
Joy  twangs  the  fiddle-string, 
And  Freedom  blows  the  flute. 

"Tiddle-dum  and  Tiddli-di  — 
What  a  joke  for  you  and  I  — 
Dolce  domum,  let  us  cry  — 
Charterhouse  adieu. 

"Purblind  Cupid  must  still  drag  on 
Some  more  days  ere  he  can  brag  on 
Killing  game  to  fill  a  waggon, 
And  thy  shooting- jacket  too ! 

"Yet,  oh  stay!  thou  beauteous  sister 
Who  hast  caused  heartburn  and  blister 
To  that  paragon  young  mister 
Joseph  Carne! 


52    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

"Queen  of  Beauty!  Star  of  Harrow! 
Thou  hast  shot  thro'  heart  and  marrow 
And  stricken  Makepeace  with  thy  arrow 
In  the  head  and  brain." 

More  characteristic  are  some  lines  written 
at  about  the  same  time  that  were  handed 
down  orally  for  two  score  years  before 
Anthony  Trollope  committed  them  to  paper. 

"In  the  romantic  little  town  of  Highbury 
My  father  kept  a  circulating  library; 
He  followed  in  his  youth  that  man  immortal,  who 
Conquered  the  French  on  the  plains  of  Waterloo. 
Mamma  was  an  inhabitant  of  Drogheda, 
Very  good  she  was  to  darn  and  to  embroider. 
In  the  famous  isle  of  Jamaica, 
For  thirty  years  I  've  been  a  sugar-baker; 
And  here  I  sit,  the  Muses'  'appy  vot'ry, 
A  cultivatin'  every  kind  of  po'try." 

The  swing  of  these  lines  is  undeniable;  and 
the  rhymes  as  awful  as  anything  that  even 
Thackeray  ever  perpetrated:  "Immortal, 
who"  is  coupled  with  "plains  of  Waterloo," 
and  "Jamaica"  with  "sugar-baker."  But 
Thackeray  never  troubled  much  about  correct 
rhyming.  This  disregard  adds,  perhaps,  to 
the  amusement  in  the  case  of  such  a  humor- 


Thackeray's  Ballads          53 

ous  description  as  "The  White  Squall," 
where  there  are  to  be  found  "soaks  all"  and 
"fo'ksal,"  and  "Jacob"  and  "wake  up;" 
but  it  is  more  noticeable  and  less  pardonable 
when,  in  the  most  exquisite  verse  of  "  Vanitas 
Vanitatum"  he  rhymes  "splendid"  with 
"penned  it." 

After  Thackeray  left  school  he  wrote 
some  stanzas  about  Lalor  Sheil,  and  a  speech 
which  that  worthy  was  prevented  (by  the 
police)  from  delivering,  but  which,  notwith- 
standing, duly  appeared  in  the  morning 
papers.  The  verses  are  poor,  but  they  are 
memorable  as  the  author's  first  appearance 
in  print. 

"IRISH  MELODY 
"(Air:  The  Minstrel  Boy) 

"Mister  Sheil  into  Kent  has  gone, 

On  Penenden  Heath  you  '11  find  him; 
Nor  think  you  that  he  came  alone, 
There  's  Doctor  Doyle  behind  him. 

"  'Men  of  Kent,'  said  the  little  man, 

'If  you  hate  Emancipation, 
You  're  a  set  of  fools.'  He  then  began 
A  cut  and  dry  oration. 


54    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

"He  strove  to  speak,  but  the  men  of  Kent 

Began  a  grievous  shouting, 
When  out  of  the  waggon  the  little  man  went, 
And  put  a  stop  to  his  spouting. 

"  'What  though  these  heretics  heard  me  not!' 

Quoth  he  to  his  friend  Canoncial, 
*My  speech  is  safe  in  the  Times  I  wot, 
And  eke  in  the  Morning  Chronicle.'  ' 

At  Cambridge  most  of  Thackeray's  con- 
tributions to  the  Snob  and  the  Goivnsman 
were  in  verse,  as  was  much  that  he  wrote  for 
the  National  Standard;  but  all  that  can  be 
said  of  these  juvenile  productions  is  that 
they  show  a  keen  sense  of  fun.  In  those 
days  Thackeray  had  not  found  himself,  for 
even  when  he  abandoned  painting  he  found 
some  difficulty  in  choosing  between  the 
claims  of  poetry,  criticism,  and  novel-writing. 
His  first  book,  "Flore  et  Zephyr,"  was  a 
collection  of  sketches;  his  earliest  contribu- 
tions to  Fraser's  Magazine  included  an  "Imi- 
tation of  Beranger,"  and  the  free  translation 
of  some  German  ditties;  "The  Paris  Sketch 
Book"  was  a  medley  of  political  essays, 
stories,  verses,  art-criticism,  and  reviews  of 


WILLIAM   MAKEPEACE    THACKERAY,    ABOUT    1822 
From  a  Bust  by  Deville  in  the  National  Portrait  Gallery 


Thackeray's  Ballads  55 

books;  "Comic  Tales  and  Sketches,"  a  col- 
lection of  stories,  most  of  them  illustrated 
by  himself;  while  the  best  pages  of  the  little 
brochure,  "The  Second  Funeral  of  Napo- 
leon," were  those  devoted  to  the  ballad, 
"The  Chronicle  of  the  Drum."  As  his 
literary  career  progressed,  poetry  took  its 
place  in  his  life  as  a  relaxation,  for,  like  his 
sketches,  the  writing  of  verses  was  a  labour 
of  love.  He  wrote  many  ballads  for  Punch 
—  political  skits,  love-songs,  parodies,  what- 
not —  but  this  did  not  exhaust  his  fertility. 
In  private  life,  too,  he  was  always  rhyming. 
If  he  wrote  to  his  intimates,  if  he  inscribed 
his  name  in  a  visitors '-book  or  an  autograph 
album,  if  he  sent  a  note  to  a  child,  or  a  bunch 
of  flowers  to  a  young  girl,  or  visited  an  old 
haunt,  he  would  drop  into  metre.  As  a  rule 
the  lines  flowed  without  effort  from  his 
facile  pen,  though  sometimes  he  was  in 
trouble.  "I  don't  wonder  at  poets  being 
selfish,"  he  wrote  to  Mrs.  Brookfield  when 
he  was  composing  the  "May-Day  Ode." 
"I  have  been  for  five  days  a  poet,  and  have 
thought  and  remembered  nothing  else  than 


5  6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

myself,  and  my  rhymes,  and  my  measures. 
If  somebody  had  come  to  me  and  said,  *  Mrs. 
Brookfield  has  just  had  her  arm  cut  off,'  I 
should  have  gone  on  with  *  Queen  of  innum- 
erable Isles,  tidumtidy,  tidumtidy,'  and  not 
stirred  from  the  chair.  The  children  and  no- 
body have  n't  seen  me  except  at  night,  and 
now  (though  the  work  is  just  done)  I  hardly 
see  the  paper  before  me,  so  utterly  beat, 
nervous,  bilious,  and  overcome  do  I  feel." 
Yet,  though  as  a  rule  he  wrote  with  ease,  he 
was  a  severe  critic  of  his  work,  and  after 
publication  would  sometimes  entirely  revise 
the  poem.  There  are  two  distinct  versions 
of  "The  King  of  Brentford;"  and  no  less 
than  three  times  he  materially  altered 
"Lucy's  Birthday." 

Thackeray  wrote  in  all  about  one  hundred 
poems.  A  fifth  of  this  number  were  based 
upon  political  subjects,  and  of  these  there 
is  little  to  say,  save  that  most  of  them  were 
composed  in  haste,  often  with  the  printer's 
devil  at  the  door.  Their  merit  consists  in  a 
certain  humour,  but  their  interest  was  for 
the  day;  they  amused  the  generation  for 


Thackeray's  Ballads  57 

which  they  were  written,  and  so  achieved 
their  object.  Clever  they  are  undoubtedly, 
but  few  of  them  bear  the  hall-mark  of 
the  author's  individuality;  and,  in  all 
probability,  the  subjects  were  selected, 
or  at  least  suggested,  by  the  editor  of 
Punch. 

The  same  defects,  though  in  a  lesser 
degree,  are  noticeable  in  the  "Bow  Street 
Ballads."  They  also  convey  in  the  reading 
the  impression  that  they  were  written  to 
order;  and  not  all  the  fun  of  Policeman 
X54's  quaint  spelling  and  curious  phrasing 
makes  them  quite  acceptable,  although  here 
and  there  the  personality  of  Thackeray 
emerges  from  the  motley.  Notably  is  this 
the  case  in  "Jacob  Homnium's  Hoss,"  where 
he  gives  rein  to  his  indignation  against 
"Pallis  Court,"  with  its  monstrous  scale  of 
costs : — 

"Come  down  from  that  tribewn 
Thou  Shameless  and  Unjust; 
Thou  Swindle,  picking  pockets  in 

The  name  of  Truth  august; 
Come  down,  thou  hoary  Blasphemy, 
For  die  thou  shalt  and  must. 


58     Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

"And  go  it,  Jacob  Homnium, 

And  ply  your  iron  pen, 
And  rise  up  Sir  John  Jervis, 

And  shut  me  up  that  den; 
That  sty  for  fattening  lawyers  in 

On  the  bones  of  honest  men." 

The  "Lyra  Hibernica"  are  better.  The 
fun  is  more  spontaneous,  the  humour  of  a 
higher  class;  the  quaint  rhymes  amuse,  and 
the  swing  of  the  verses  delights.  It  is  not 
worth  while,  however,  to  argue  the  question 
of  the  accuracy  of  Thackeray's  attempt  to 
present  phonetically  the  Irishman's  pronun- 
ciation of  the  English  language.  The  cata- 
logue of  the  exhibits  of  the  Great  Exhibition 
is  delightful,  and  the  apparent  ease  of  the 
versification  is  not  excelled  even  in  the  won- 
derful "White  Squall." 

"There  's  holy  saints 

And  window  paints, 
By  Maydiayval  Pugin; 

Alhamborough  Jones 

Did  paint  the  tones 
Of  yellow  and  gambouge  in. 

"There  's  statues  bright 

Of  marble  white, 
Of  silver,  and  of  copper; 


Thackeray's  Ballads  59 

And  some  in  zinc, 

And  some,  I  think, 

That  is  n't  over  proper. 

"For  thim  genteels 

Who  ride  on  wheels, 
There  's  plenty  to  indulge  'em; 

There  's  droskys  snug 

From  Paytersbug 
And  vayhycles  from  Bulgium. 

"There  's  cabs  on  stands 

And  shandthry-danns; 
There  's  waggons  from  New  York  here; 

There  's  Lapland  sleighs 

Have  crossed  the  seas, 
And  jaunting  cyars  from  Cork  here." 

Thackeray's  favourite  poets  were  Gold- 
smith and  the  "sweet  lyric  singers,"  Prior, 
whom  he  thought  the  easiest,  the  richest, 
the  most  charmingly  humorous  of  English 
lyrical  poets,  and  Gay,  the  force  of  whose 
simple  melody  and  artless  ringing  laughter 
he  appreciated.  It  is  not  surprising  that 
Thackeray  never  essayed  the  "big  bow-wow 
kind"  of  poetry.  From  the  first  he  recog- 
nised his  limitations;  and  to  the  end  was 
content  to  be  bound  by  them.  He  might 


60    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

have  said  with  Locker-Lampson,  "My  aim 
is  humble.  I  used  the  ordinary  metres  and 
rhymes,  the  simplest  language  and  ideas,  I 
hope  flavoured  with  individuality.  I  strove 
not  to  be  obscure,  not  to  be  flat,  above  all, 
not  to  be  tedious."  As,  indeed,  Thackeray 
said  to  the  author  of  the  delightful  "London 
Lyrics:"  "I  have  a  sixpenny  talent  (or  gift) 
and  so  have  you;  ours  is  small  beer,  but, 
you  see,  it  is  the  right  tap."  It  is  worthy  of 
remark  how  much  in  common  the  verses  of 
these  men  had.  The  poems  of  Locker- 
Lampson  —  that  author  thought  Thackeray 
was  almost  as  humorous  as  Swift,  and  some- 
times almost  as  tender  as  Cowper  —  often 
suggest  those  of  the  more  famous  writer. 
The  dainty  "St.  James's  Street"  recalls 
"The  Ballad  of  Bouillabaisse,"  as  "Ger- 
trude's Necklace"  conjures  up  a  memory  of 
"Lucy's  Birthday."  Both  were  artists  to 
the  finger-tips,  both  had  a  keen  appreciation 
of  humour;  but  Thackeray,  though  he  could 
be  dainty,  was  rather  more  virile  and  usually 
less  elegant,  with  a  leaning  to  burlesque. 
The  sense  of  parody  was,  indeed,  strongly 


Thackeray's  Ballads  61 

imbued  in  Thackeray.  He  wrote  "The 
Willow  Tree,"  and,  seeing  the  opportunity, 
burlesqued  it  forthwith.  "Larry  O'Toole" 
from  Phil  Fogarty  could  easily  be  mistaken 
for  one  of  the  spirited  songs  with  which 
Lever  adorned  his  brilliant  but  more  or  less 
unreal  stories  of  Ireland. 

"You  Ve  all  heard  of  Larry  O'Toole, 
Of  the  beautiful  town  of  Drumgoole; 
He  had  but  one  eye, 
To  ogle  ye  by  — 
O,  murther,  but  that  was  a  jew'l ! 

A  fool 
He  made  of  de  girls,  dis  O'Toole. 

"*T  was  he  was  the  boy  did  n't  fail, 
That  tuck  down  pataties  and  mail; 
He  never  would  shrink 
From  any  sthrong  dthrink, 
Was  it  whisky  or  Drogheda  ale; 

I  'm  bail 
This  Larry  would  swallow  a  pail. 

"O  many  a  night,  at  the  bowl, 
With  Larry  I  Ve  sot  cheek  by  jowl; 
He  's  gone  to  his  rest, 
Where  there  's  dthrink  of  the  best, 
And  so  let  us  give  his  owl  sowl 

A  howl, 
For  't  was  he  made  the  noggin  to  rowl." 


62    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

The  libretti  of  the  'forties  and  'fifties  were 
no  more  sensible  than  the  majority  of  the 
similar  compositions  to-day,  and  they  offered 
themselves  as  a  good  butt  for  ridicule. 
Thackeray  started  a  series  of  parodies  with 
the  Mayfair  and  the  Oriental  Love  Songs; 
but  when  the  turn  came  of  the  Domestic 
song,  the  man's  sentiment  overcame  his 
intention.  Though  prefaced  by  a  burlesque 
prose  introduction  —  omitted  in  most  re- 
prints —  there  is  little  or  nothing  of  the 
parody  in  the  verse.  Humour  there  is  in 
plenty,  but  it  is  that  tender  humour  that  is 
not  far  away  from  tears;  there  is  loving- 
kindness  in  every  line;  and  the  picture  of 
the  lonely  bachelor  thinking  of  the  fair  young 
girl  whose  presence  had  for  a  moment  re- 
lieved the  gloom  of  the  dull  chambers  does 
not  create  more  mirth  than  is  to  be  found  in 
a  sad  smile. 

"It  was  but  a  moment  she  sat  in  this  place, 
She  'd  a  scarf  on  her  neck,  and  a  smile  on  her  face ! 
A  smile  on  her  face,  and  a  rose  in  her  hair, 
And  she  sat  there,  and  bloom'd  in  my  cane-bottom' d 
chair. 


Thackeray's  Ballads  63 

"And  so  I  have  valued  my  chair  ever  since, 
Like  the  shrine  of  a  saint,  or  the  throne  of  a  prince; 
Sweet  Fanny,  my  patroness  sweet,  I  declare 
The  queen  of  my  heart  and  my  cane-bottom'd  chair. 

"When  the  candles  burn  low,  and  the  company  's  gone, 
In  the  silence  of  night  as  I  sit  here  alone  — 
I  sit  here  alone,  but  we  yet  are  a  pair  — 
My  Fanny  I  see  in  my  cane-bottom'd  chair. 

"She  comes  from  the  past  and  revisits  my  room; 
She  looks  as  she  then  did,  all  beauty  and  bloom, 
So  smiling  and  tender,  so  fresh  and  so  fair, 
And  yonder  she  sits  in  my  cane-bottom'd  chair." 

In  the  same  vein  of  tenderness  is  the  even 
better-known  "Ballad  of  Bouillabaisse," 
written  in  Paris  after  a  visit  to  the  restaurant 
where  the  author  and  his  wife  and  friends 
had  been  frequent  visitors;  and  the  exqui- 
site "Mahogany  Tree,"  one  of  the  author's 
favourites,  which  many  a  time  he  sang.  A 
touching  incident  is  narrated  concerning 
these  verses.  On  the  Christmas  Eve  when 
"Horry"  Mayhew  brought  the  sad  news  of 
Thackeray's  untimely  death  to  the  Punch 
staff,  who  suffered  not  the  loss  of  the  novelist 
so  much  as  the  loss  of  an  old  friend,  he  said, 
"I  '11  tell  you  what  we  '11  do.  We  '11  sing  the 


64    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

dear  old  boy's  *  Mahogany  Tree;'  he'd  like 
it."  Accordingly  they  stood  up,  and  with 
such  memory  of  the  words  as  each  pos- 
sessed and  a  catching  of  the  breath  here 
and  there,  by  about  all  of  them,  the  song 
was  sung. 

The  most  ambitious,  as  well  as  the  longest, 
of  Thackeray's  poems  was  "The  Great  Cos- 
sack Epic  of  Demetrius  Rigmarolovicz," 
founded,  so  the  prefatory  note  informs  us, 
on  the  legend  of  St.  Sophia,  whose  statue  is 
said  to  have  walked  of  its  own  accord  up  the 
river  Dnieper  to  take  its  station  in  the 
Church  of  Kiew.  It  is  good  fooling,  and 
amusing  enough,  but  it  does  not  bear  in  any 
marked  degree  the  imprint  of  Thackeray's 
individuality.  It  was  followed  by  "The 
Chronicle  of  the  Drum,"  which  is  on  a  quite 
different  plane,  and  is  as  good  as  anything 
Thackeray  ever  wrote  in  verse.  It  is  the 
narrative  of  a  French  drummer,  whose  an- 
cestors for  the  last  four  generations  had 
rattled  the  sticks  from  the  days  of  Henri 
of  Navarre.  In  Germany,  Flanders,  and 
Holland 


Thackeray's  Ballads  65 

"...  my  grandsire  was  ever  victorious, 
My  grandsire  and  Monsieur  Turenne;" 

his  father  was  at  Fontenoy  and  lost  his  life 
at  Quebec;  while  the  story-teller  was  present 
at  Yorktown,  helped  to  drum  down  the 
Bastille,  and  fought  for  the  Republic  in  the 
days  of  the  Terror. 

"We  had  taken  the  head  of  King  Capet, 

We  called  for  the  blood  of  his  wife; 
Undaunted  she  came  to  the  scaffold, 

And  bared  her  fair  neck  to  the  knife. 
As  she  felt  the  foul  fingers  that  touched  her, 

She  shrank  but  she  deigned  not  to  speak, 
She  look'd  with  a  royal  disdain, 

And  died  with  a  blush  in  her  cheek!" 

He  was  in  the  Napoleonic  army  and  a  stout 
partisan  of  the  Emperor.  He  was  at  Marengo, 
Jena,  Austerlitz,  and  took  part  in  a  hundred 
victorious  wars;  the  Hundred  Days  found 
him  at  his  post;  and  he  was  present  at 
Waterloo. 

"A  curse  on  those  British  assassins, 

Who  ordered  the  slaughter  of  Ney; 
A  curse  on  Sir  Hudson,  who  tortured 
The  life  of  our  hero  away. 


66    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

A  curse  on  all  Russians  —  I  hate  them  — 
On  all  Prussians  and  Austrian  fry; 

And,  oh  but  I  pray  we  may  meet  them, 
And  fight  them  again  ere  I  die." 

"The  Chronicle  of  the  Drum"  presents  a 
fine  picture  of  the  wild  enthusiasm  of  the 
French  for  then*  Corsican  leader  and  of  the 
deep-seated  hatred  of 

"...  those  red-coated  English, 
Whose  bayonets  helped  our  undoing." 

The  drummer  cares  nothing  for  the  cause, 
but  everything  for  the  battle;  fighting  was 
in  his  blood,  for  he  loved  his  country  and 
believed  in  his  general  as  in  his  God;  yet 
even  when  fierce  excitement  had  the  better 
of  him,  he  could  spare  a  thought  for  the  poor 
woman  waiting  anxiously  for  news  of  her 
husband,  who  had  marched  with  the  army 
against  Wolfe. 

"I  think  I  can  see  my  poor  mammy 

With  me  in  her  hand  as  she  waits, 
And  our  regiment,  slowly  retreating, 

Pours  back  through  the  citadel  gates. 
Dear  Mammy !  she  looks  in  their  faces, 

And  asks  if  her  husband  has  come?  — 
He  is  lying  all  cold  on  the  glacis, 

And  will  never  more  beat  on  the  drum." 


Thackeray's  Ballads  67 

This  splendid  martial  poem  contains  much 
satirical  humour  and  just  the  amount  of 
underlying  pathos  that  adds  to  the  beauty; 
and  it  has  many  of  the  qualities  that  later 
were  to  combine  in  the  making  of  the  won- 
derful, ironical  "Barry  Lyndon." 

In  his  verses  as  in  his  prose,  but  more 
concisely  in  the  former,  Thackeray,  as  the 
latter-day  "sad  and  splendid,  the  weary  King 
Ecclesiast,"  cried  his  sermon.  He  had  no 
new  lesson  to  teach:  the  old  tale  was  good 
enough  for  him  to  repeat.  He  would  have 
women  good  and  pure,  and  men  brave  and 
true;  he  would  have  parents  respect  their 
children,  as  he  would  have  the  young  rever- 
ence their  elders.  Success  is  but  little,  he 
preached,  for  the  race  is  not  always  to  the 
swift,  and  the  great  may  be  overthrown  and 
the  lackey  exalted;  but  none  the  less, 

"...  if  you  fail,  or  if  you  rise, 
Be  each,  pray  God,  a  gentleman." 

"It  is  easy  enough  to  knock  off  that  non- 
sense about  Policeman  X,"  Thackeray  said; 
"but  to  write  a  good  occasional  verse  is  a 
rare  intellectual  feat."  Yet  this,  too,  he 


68    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

accomplished.  He  possessed  the  wit  and 
fancy,  the  humour  and  tenderness,  the  re- 
finement, without  all  of  which  qualities  "the 
real  thing"  cannot  be  produced.  Nor  was 
the  lyrical  strain  absent  from  his  composi- 
tion. His  verse  is  easy  and  possesses  the 
essential  merit  of  apparent  spontaneity.  He 
was  almost  invariably  humorous;  yet  there 
was  always  something  more  than  mere  fun. 
Frequently  he  was  satirical,  occasionally  he 
was  indignant;  sometimes,  as  in  "The  End 
of  the  Play"  and  "Vanitas  Vanitatum,"  he 
was  didactic;  usually  he  was  tender  and 
pathetic.  He  could  be  gay;  he  could  sprinkle 
his  verses  with  playful  or  ironic  humour; 
and  upon  all  his  best  work  his  personality  is 
impressed;  the  man's  great  heart  is  there  for 
all  to  see  who  care  to  look.  Most  of  his  ballads 
are  good;  all  are  readable,  and  many  are 
possessed  of  distinction.  As  has  been  said, 
his  rhymes  were  often  appalling,  and  his 
metre  not  always  perfect;  but  his  language 
was  as  simple  and  direct  as  in  his  prose  writ- 
ings. If  he  was  not  underrating  his  talent 
when  he  spoke  of  it  as  small  beer,  he  certainly 


WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 

From  a  water-color  drawing  by  D.  Dighton 

By  permission  of  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Thackeray's  Ballads  69 

was  not  guilty  of  an  error  of  judgment  when 
he  declared  it  was  the  right  tap.  No  "Lyra 
Elegantiarum"  is  complete  without  the  inser- 
tion of  "The  Mahogany  Tree,"  "The  Ballad 
of  Bouillabaisse,"  and  "Peg  of  Limavaddy;" 
and  no  collection  of  humorous  verse  may 
omit  "The  Chronicle  of  the  Drum."  These 
alone  give  him  a  place  of  importance  among 
the  lighter  poets;  and  if  at  present  his 
eminence  as  a  novelist  has  thrown  his  poems 
into  shadow,  as  time  passes  his  ballads  will 
be  more  widely  read,  and  his  reputation  as  a 
poet  will  be  considerably  enhanced. 

It  was  thought  when  Mr.  M.  H.  Spiel- 
mann  discovered  in  Punch  some  score  of 
hitherto  unidentified  ballads  that  the  last 
discovery  of  verses  by  Thackeray  had  been 
made.  However,  there  was  another  surprise 
in  store.  In  the  Monthly  Review  for  October, 
1904,  an  article  by  the  late  Rev.  Whitwell 
Elwin  on  "Thackeray  in  search  of  a  Pro- 
fession," disclosed  the  fact  that  Thackeray 
had  contributed  to  the  Foreign  Quarterly 
Review,  April,  1843,  a  review  of  Herwegh's 


7°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

earlier  poems  headed:  "Georg  Herwegh. 
Gedichte  eines  Lebendigen,  mit  einer  Dedi- 
kation  an  den  Verstorbenen"  ("Poems  of  a 
Living  Man,  with  a  Dedication  to  the  Dead  "), 
1841-1842. 

Thackeray,  however,  had  done  more  than 
criticise  the  poems.  He  had  translated  some 
of  them.  It  cannot  be  contended  that  these 
are  equal  to  his  "Imitations  of  Beranger" 
for  certainly  Thackeray  had  more  in  common 
with  that  poet.  His  rendering  of  "II  etait 
un  roi  d'Yvetot"  retains  much  of  the  humour 
of  the  original;  while  "The  Garret,"  the 
English  version  of  "Le  Grenier,"  reads  like 
one  of  the  translator's  own  ballads. 

"Let  us  begone  —  the  place  is  sad  and  strange  — 

How  far,  far  off,  those  happy  times  appear; 
All  that  I  have  to  live  I  'd  gladly  change 

For  one  such  month  as  I  have  wasted  here  — 
To  draw  long  dreams  of  beauty,  love,  and  power, 

From  founts  of  hope  that  never  will  outrun, 
And  drink  all  life's  quintessence  in  an  hour, 

Give  me  the  days  when  I  was  twenty-one!" 

Herein  may  be  detected  an  influence  that 
was  at  work  when  the  time  came  to  com- 
pose "The  Mahogany  Tree"  and  "The 


Thackeray's  Ballads  71 

Ballad  of  Bouillabaisse."  Thackeray  trans- 
lated verses  from  Horace,  and  these  charm 
by  their  humour;  and  also  from  Chamisso, 
De  la  Motte  Fouque,  and  Uhland.  With 
the  latter  he  was  particularly  happy,  for  his 
rendering  of  "Der  Konig  auf  dem  Turme" 
was  one  of  the  best  things  he  ever  did.  He 
must  have  taken  much  trouble  to  produce 
these  verses,  for  nothing  of  the  simple,  sad 
beauty  of  this,  one  of  the  best  of  Uhland's 
poems,  is  lost  in  the  translation. 

"The  cold  grey  hills  they  bind  me  around, 

The  darksome  valleys  lie  sleeping  below, 
But  the  winds,  as  they  pass  o'er  all  this  ground, 
Bring  me  never  a  sound  of  woe! 

"Oh!  for  all  I  have  suffered  and  striven, 

Care  has  embittered  my  cup  and  my  feast; 
But  here  is  the  night  and  the  dark  blue  heaven, 
And  my  soul  shall  be  at  rest. 

"O  golden  legends  writ  in  the  skies! 

I  turn  towards  you  with  longing  soul, 
And  list  to  the  awful  harmonies 
Of  the  Spheres  as  on  they  roll." 

Herwegh  is  a  poet  little  known  in  this 
country,  and,  indeed,  not  now  greatly  hon- 
oured in  his  own  land.  As  a  lad  he  showed 


72    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

considerable  talent.  He  published  a  very 
acceptable  translation  of  some  of  Lamar- 
tine's  writings;  and  later  became  the  assist- 
ant of  Lewald,  the  editor  of  a  not  very  im- 
portant literary  journal,  Europe.  At  that 
time  conscription  was,  of  course,  already 
in  full  swing  in  Germany;  and,  too  poor  to 
buy  a  substitute,  Herwegh  was  impressed. 
The  life  in  barracks  was  unendurable  to  the 
sensitive  young  man  of  letters.  Recruits 
were  coupled  to  prevent  desertion,  and  his 
companion  was  a  rough,  coarse  peasant.  He 
wrote  to  Lewald  and  told  him  he  would 
rather  die  than  serve  the  remainder  of  his 
time.  Thus  spurred,  the  editor  used  his 
influence,  and  succeeded  in  obtaining  for 
his  protege  unlimited  leave  of  absence.  All 
would  have  been  well,  therefore,  but  that 
at  a  public  ball  Herwegh  quarrelled  with  an 
officer,  and  there  was  to  be  a  duel  until  his 
antagonist  discovered  that  Herwegh  was 
a  private  in  his  regiment,  when,  as  an  officer 
cannot  meet  a  private,  the  encounter  was 
abandoned;  but  the  poet's  leave  of  absence 
was  at  once  withdrawn. 


Thackeray's  Ballads  73 

Herwegh  could  not  bring  himself  to  re- 
turn to  the  army;  and,  instead,  hastened 
over  the  Swiss  frontier;  but  again  influence 
must  have  been  brought  to  bear  on  the  mili- 
tary authorities,  for  his  desertion  was  con- 
doned, and  soon  he  returned  and  went  to 
Berlin.  There  he  became  the  lion  of  the 
season.  The  King  granted  him  an  inter- 
view; he  was  feted  everywhere;  and  a  wealthy 
woman  married  him.  It  was  shortly  after 
this  that  "Gedichte  eines  Lebendigen"  was 
published.  With  his  later  career  we  have 
here  no  concern.  Those  who  are  not  familiar 
with  Herwegh 's  works  may  be  interested  in 
an  excerpt  from  Thackeray's  criticism:  "Her- 
wegh has  fancy,  wit,  and  strong  words  at 
command.  He  has  a  keen  eye  for  cant,  too, 
at  times,  and  shows  himself  to  be  a  pretty 
sharp  and  clear-headed  critic  of  art.  But 
it  is  absurd  to  place  this  young  man  forward 
as  a  master.  His  poetry  is  a  convulsion, 
not  an  effort  of  strength;  he  does  not 
sing,  but  he  roars;  his  dislike  amounts  to 
fury;  and  ...  in  many  instances  his  hatred 
and  heroism  are  quite  factitious,  and  his 


74    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

enthusiasm    has    a    very    calculating    look 
with  it." 

The  first  piece  translated  is  "Das  Lied  vom 
Basse"  ("The  Song  of  Hatred"). 

"Brave  soldier,  kiss  the  trusty  wife, 

And  draw  the  trusty  blade ! 
Then  turn  ye  to  the  reddening  East, 

In  freedom's  cause  arrayed; 
Till  death  shall  part  the  blade  and  hand, 

They  may  not  separate: 
We  've  practised  loving  long  enough, 

And  come  at  length  to  hate! 

"To  right  us  and  to  rescue  us 

Hath  Love  essayed  in  vain; 
O  Hate!  proclaim  thy  judgment-day 

And  break  our  bonds  in  twain. 
As  long  as  ever  tyrants  last 

Our  task  shall  not  abate: 
We  Ve  practised  loving  long  enough, 

And  come  at  length  to  hate! 

"Henceforth  let  every  heart  that  beats 

With  hate  alone  be  beating  — 
Look  round!  what  piles  of  rotten  sticks 

Will  keep  the  flame  a-heating  — 
As  many  as  are  free  and  dare 

From  street  to  street  go  say  't: 
We  've  practised  loving  long  enough, 

And  come  at  length  to  hate! 


Thackeray's  Ballads  75 

"Fight  tyranny,  while  tyranny 

The  trampled  earth  above  is; 
And  holier  will  our  hatred  be, 

Far  holier  than  our  love  is. 
Till  death  shall  part  the  blade  and  hand, 

They  may  not  separate: 
We  Ve  practised  loving  long  enough, 

And  come  at  length  to  hate!" 

As  Thackeray  was  the  first  to  confess, 
much  of  the  spirit  of  this  rude,  hearty  song  has 
evaporated  and,  to  give  one  example  of  this, 
the  last  two  lines  in  the  English  version  are  a 
poor  exchange  for  the  original  "Wir  haben 
lang  genug  geliebt  und  wollen  endlich  hassen." 

The  second  poem,  "Zuruf"  ("Appeal"), 
is'  one  in  which  martyrdom,  republicanism, 
destruction  of  priesthood,  and  other  favourite 
revolutionary  doctrines  of  the  writer  are 
enunciated. 

"Behold,  when  the  red  sun  appears, 
He  shineth  as  bright  in  his  station, 
As  he  shone  in  the  day  of  creation, 
Ere  he  looked  on  the  woes  of  long  years. 

"Young  hearts,  be  ye  steady  and  bold, 
Confront  ye  the  tempest  undaunted, 
For  He  who  the  spirit  has  granted 
Is  with  us  to-day  as  of  old. 


76    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

"For  the  last  of  all  kings,  make  ye  way, 
A  million  glad  voices  proclaim  his 
Avatar,  and  FREEDOM  his  name  is, 
And  boundless  and  endless  his  sway.1 


"And  not  only  Heaven  as  of  yore, 
But  earth  shall  be  pure  and  divine, 
One  priesthood  man's  sanctified  line, 
And  laymen  among  us  no  more! 

"Make  way  for  our  Saviour  and  Lord; 

It  is  not  with  hymns  that  we  greet  him, 
It  is  not  with  palms  that  we  meet  him, 
But  he  comes  with  the  clang  of  the  sword. 

"Then,  Bards,  lay  aside  for  the  blade, 
The  harp  and  its  idle  diversions: 
Thermopylae  waits  for  our  Persians, 
And  many  a  grave  in  the  shade!" 

1  The  difficulty  of  the  translation  of  this  poem  has  resulted  in  a 
somewhat  free  rendering.  A  verse  that  should  be  inserted  between 
the  third  and  fourth  was  not  translated  by  Thackeray,  who,  print- 
ing it  in  German,  gives  a  footnote  saying  it  was  quite  beyond  his 
powers,  and  that  he  had  shown  it  to  a  German  friend,  who  was  at 
a  loss  regarding  the  meaning  of  the  last  line. 

"Nimmer  schwingt  in  unsrem  Haus 
Der  Kosake  seine  Kniite 
Uns're  Deutsche  Zauberruthe 
Schlagt  noch  manchen  goldnen  Friihling  aus." 


Thackeray's  Ballads  77 

The  following  was  obviously  dictated  by 
Herwegh's  keen  sense  of  the  importance  of 
his  calling:  — 

"Wore  I  a  soldier's  weapon  on  my  thigh, 
Drove  I  a  rustic's  plough  upon  the  lea, 
At  early  eve  I  'd  fling  my  labours  by, 
And  drink  my  homely  cup  and  so  be  free. 

"Such  calm  for  spirits  like  mine  may  never  be, 
My  soul  hath  restless  pinions  and  will  fly, 
Still  eager  soaring  higher  and  more  high, 
And  the  kind  evening  brings  no  rest  for  me. 

"We  raise  not  barriers  to  the  Heavenly  thus, 
Thought  tracks  us  on  the  wide  world's  busy  ways, 
It  watches  when  we  sleep  —  there  is  no  place, 
To  shelter  from  that  constant  genius ! 
Its  lightnings  round  about  us  ever  blaze, 
And  even  in  love's  arms  it  reaches  us." 

Then  comes  advice  to  a  lady  who  was 
tempted  to  publish  her  verses,  of  which,  ap- 
parently, the  poet  had  not  a  high  opinion:  — 

"On  humble  knees  of  silent  nights, 

No  more  my  lady  prays; 
But  now  in  glory  she  delights, 
And  pines  to  wear  the  bays. 


7 8    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

The  gentle  secret  of  her  heart 

She'd  tell  to  idle  ears, 
And  fain  would  carry  to  the  mart 

The  treasure  of  her  tears ! 

"When  there  are  roses  freshly  blown 

That  forehead  to  adorn, 
Why  ask  the  Poet's  martyr-crown,  — 

The  bitter  wreath  of  thorn? 
That  lip  which  all  so  ruddy  is, 

With  freshest  roses  vying, 
Believe  me,  sweet,  was  made  to  kiss, 

Not  formed  for  prophesying. 

"Remain,  my  nightingale,  remain, 

And  warble  in  your  shade! 
The  heights  of  glory  were  in  vain, 

By  wings  like  yours  essayed; 
And  while  at  Glory's  shrine  the  Priest 

A  hecatomb  must  proffer, 
There 's  Love  —  oh,  Love  will  take  the  least 

Small  mite  the  heart  can  offer." 

It  is  only  fair  to  the  author  to  give  the 
original  of  the  last  two  lines,  which  are  in- 
deed a  very  feeble  rendering  of  "O  Liebe! 
—  ist  ein  Scharflein  auch  wilkommen." 

"  Comrade,  why  the  song  so  joyous  —  why  the  goblet 

in  your  hand? 

While  in  sackcloth  and  in  ashes  yonder  weeps  our 
Fatherland. 


Thackeray's  Ballads  79 

"  Still  the  bells  and  bed  the  roses  —  with  girls  on  Ger- 
man strand; 

For  deserted  by  her  bridegroom,  yonder  site  our 
Fatherland. 

"Wherefore  strive  for  crowns,  ye  princes?  —  quit  your 

state,  your  jewels  grand, 

See  where  at  your  palace  portal,  shivering  sits  our 
Fatherland. 

"Idle  priestlings,  what  avails  us  —  prayer  and  pulpit, 

cowl  and  band? 

Trodden  in  the  dust  and  groaning,  yonder  lies  our 
Fatherland. 

"Counting  out  his  red  round  rubles,  yon  sits  Dives 

smiling  bland  — 

Reckoning  his  poor  wounds  and  sores,  Lazarus,  our 
Fatherland. 

"Wo,  ye  poor!  for  priceless  jewels  lie  before  ye  in  the 

sand, 

Even  my  tears,  my  best,  my  brightest!    lie  there, 
wept  for  Fatherland. 

"  But,  O  poet,  cease  thy  descant  —  't  is  not  thine  as 

judge  to  stand, 

Silence  now  —  the  swan  hath  sung  his  death-song 
for  our  Fatherland." 

The  "Protest,"  which  follows,  is  a  satire 
upon  the  pompous  ballad  of  Becker  that  was 
so  popular  in  Germany  at  a  time  when  the 


8o    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

feeling   of  the   nation   was   excited   against 
France. 

"As  long  as  I'm  a  Protestant, 
I  'm  bounden  to  protest, 
Come  every  German  musicant 

And  fiddle  me  his  best. 
You're  singing  of  'the  Free  old  Rhine,' 
But  I  say  no,  good  comrades  mine, 
The  Rhine  could  be 
Greatly  more  free, 
And  that  I  do  protest. 

"I  scarce  had  got  my  christening  o'er, 

Or  was  in  breeches  drest, 
But  I  began  to  shout  and  roar, 

And  mightily  protest. 
And  since  that  time  I  've  never  stopt, 
My  protestations  never  dropped; 
And  blessed  be  they 
Who  every  way 
And  everywhere  protest. 

"There's  one  thing  certain  in  my  creed, 

And  schism  is  all  the  rest, 
That  who 's  a  Protestant  indeed, 

For  ever  must  protest, 
What  is  the  River  Rhine  to  me? 
For  from  its  source  unto  the  sea 
Men  are  not  free, 
Whate'er  they  be, 
And  that  I  do  protest 


Thackeray's  Ballads  81 

'As  every  man  in  reason  grants, 
What  always  was  confest, 
As  long  as  we  are  Protestants, 
We  sternly  must  protest. 
And  when  they  sing  '  the  Free  old  Rhine,' 
Answer  them,  '  No,  good  comrades  mine, 
The  Rhine  could  be 
Greatly  more  free, 
And  that  you  shall  protest.'  ' 


CHAPTER    IV 

Thackeray  and  the  Newgate  School  of  Fiction 

IN  the  thirties  of  the  last  century  arose 
the  Newgate  School  of  Fiction,  which 
made  heroes  of  highwaymen  and  other  of- 
fenders, and  so  created  a  false  sympathy 
for  the  vicious  and  criminal.  The  ingenious 
Bulwer-Lytton  it  was  who  led  the  way  and 
scored  a  great  success  with  "Eugene  Aram." 
Never  before  in  an  English  novel  had  a 
murderer  been  portrayed  as  an  earnest 
student  of  philosophy,  with  grave  mien,  gentle 
manners,  and  noble  heart;  never  before  had 
there  been  depicted  a  murderer  —  a  murderer 
who  murdered  for  money,  to  boot  —  whose 
character  was  so  endearing  and  so  sympa- 
thetic as  to  enslave  most  of  those  who  read 
about  him.  The  book  was  favourably  re- 
ceived in  most  quarters,  but  here  and  there 
a  dissentient  voice  was  heard,  and  in  Eraser's 
Magazine  for  August  and  September,  1832, 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     83 

a  tremendous  onslaught,  in  the  form  of  a 
story  called  "Elizabeth  Brownrigge"  (which 
dealt  with  the  murderess  of  that  name), 
was  made  upon  the  author  of  "Eugene 
Aram,"  to  whom  it  was  dedicated.  "I  am 
inclined  to  regard  you  as  an  original  dis- 
coverer in  the  world  of  literary  enterprise 
and  to  reverence  you  as  the  father  of  a  new 
' lusus  naturae  school/"  so  ran  a  passage  in 
the  dedication  of  the  satire.  "There  is  no 
other  title  by  which  your  manner  could  be 
so  aptly  designated.  I  am  told,  for  instance, 
that  in  a  former  work,  having  to  paint  an 
adulterer,  you  described  him  as  belonging  to 
the  class  of  country  curates,  among  whom, 
perhaps,  such  a  criminal  is  not  met  with 
once  in  a  hundred  years;  while,  on  the  con- 
trary, being  in  search  of  a  tender-hearted, 
generous,  sentimental,  high-minded  hero  of 
romance,  you  turned  to  the  pages  of  the 
*  Newgate  Calendar,'  and  looked  for  him  in 
the  list  of  men  who  have  cut  throats  for 
money,  among  whom  a  person  in  possession 
of  such  qualities  could  not  have  been  met 
with  at  all.  Wanting  a  shrewd,  selfish, 


8  4    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

worldly,  calculating  valet,  you  describe  him 
as  an  old  soldier,  though  he  bears  not  a 
single  trait  of  the  character  which  might 
have  been  moulded  by  a  long  course  of  mili- 
tary service,  but,  on  the  contrary,  is  marked 
by  all  the  distinguishing  features  of  a  bank- 
rupt attorney  or  a  lame  duck  from  the 
Stock  Exchange.  Having  to  paint  a  cat, 
you  endow  her  with  the  idiosyncrasies  of  a 
dog."  There  is  one  other  passage  which 
must  also  be  quoted:  "It  is  extraordinary 
that,  as  you  had  commenced  a  tragedy  under 
the  title  of  'Eugene  Aram,'  I  had  already 
sketched  a  burletta  with  the  title  of  'Eliza- 
beth Brownrigge.'  I  had,  indeed,  in  my 
dramatic  piece,  been  guilty  of  an  egregious 
and  unpardonable  error;  I  had  attempted 
to  excite  the  sympathies  of  the  audience  in 
favour  of  the  murdered  apprentices,  but 
your  novel  has  disabused  me  of  so  vulgar  a 
prejudice,  and  in  my  present  version  of  her 
case,  all  the  interest  of  the  reader  and  all 
the  pathetic  powers  of  the  author  will  be 
engaged  on  the  side  of  the  murderess."  At 
the  end  of  the  satire,  there  is  an  "Advertise- 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     85 

ment,"  which  runs:  "The  author  of  the 
foregoing  Tale  begs  leave  to  state  that  he 
is  prepared  to  treat  with  any  liberal  and  en- 
terprising publisher,  who  may  be  inclined 
to  embark  in  the  speculation,  for  a  series  of 
novels,  each  in  3  vols.  8vo,  under  the  title 
of  'Tales  of  the  Old  Bailey,  or  Romances  of 
Tyburn  Tree;'  in  which  the  whole  'New- 
gate Calendar'  shall  be  travestied,  after  the 
manner  of  'Eugene  Aram.'  Letters  (post- 
paid) addressed  to  X.  Y.  Z.,  215,  Regent 
Street  [the  offices  of  Eraser's  Magazine],  will 
receive  immediate  attention." 

"Elizabeth  Brownrigge"  was  published 
anonymously,  and  if  it  attracted  any  atten- 
tion at  the  time,  it  certainly  did  not  attract 
sufficient  to  make  people  desirous  to  discover 
the  author.  It  may  at  the  time  of  its  pub- 
lication have  been  credited  to  this  writer 
or  to  that,  but  it  was  not  (so  far  as  is  known) 
until  a  month  or  two  after  Thackeray's 
death  that  Dr.  John  Brown  in  an  article  on 
the  novelist  in  the  North  British  Review 
(February,  1864)  attributed  it  to  him  —  on 
what  evidence  he  does  not  state,  though  he 


86    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

may  well  have  had  the  information  from  the 
author.  "Elizabeth  Brownrigge"  is  partic- 
ularly interesting  because,  whether  Thack- 
eray did  or  did  not  write  the  story,  there  can 
be  no  question  but  that  it  was  directly 
responsible  for  "Catherine,"  which  had  the 
same  object  as  the  earlier  story.  "'Eliza- 
beth Brownrigge'  ought  to  be  Thackeray's," 
Swinburne  wrote  to  Mr.  Richard  Herne 
Shepherd  in  1880,  "for  if  it  is  not,  he  stole 
the  idea,  and  to  some  extent  the  style,  of 
his  parodies  on  novels  of  criminal  life,  from 
this  first  sketch  of  the  kind." 

A  couple  of  years  after  "Eugene  Aram" 
was  published,  William  Harrison  Ains worth 
came  to  the  fore  as  an  exponent  of  the  New- 
gate School  of  Fiction.  Lytton  had  taken 
a  murderer  for  his  hero;  Ainsworth  selected 
a  highwayman.  Dick  Turpin  was  his  jeune 
premier  in  "Rookwood,"  and  that  sorry 
young  scoundrel  Jack  Sheppard  gave  his 
name  to,  and  the  raison  d'etre  for,  another 
book.  These  novels,  too,  caught  the  public 
taste,  and  were  widely  read  and  praised 
highly  even  by  those  who  should  have  known 


AUTHOR    OF       ROOKWOOD 
From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     87 

better.  Ainsworth's  recent  biographer,  Mr. 
S.  M.  Ellis,  for  one,  can  see  no  objection  to 
the  "Jack  Sheppard"  class  of  novel.  "The 
outcry  against  Ainsworth  for  having  chosen 
a  robber  for  a  hero  cannot  seriously  be 
justified,"  he  has  written.  "If  it  is  inher- 
ently immoral  to  take  a  criminal  for  literary 
purposes  and  make  him  picturesque  and  in- 
teresting, then  the  greatest  writers  will  have 
to  stand  in  the  same  pillory  as  the  author  of 
'Jack  Sheppard.'  The  principal  characters 
of  Shakespeare's  tragedies  of  *  Hamlet,'  of 
'Macbeth'  of  'Othello,'  —  are  but  murderers; 
Falstaff  is  a  robber  and  worse.  Scott  must 
answer  for  'Rob  Roy; '  Fielding  for  'Jonathan 
Wild;'  Gay  for  'The  Beggars'  Opera;' 
Schiller  for  'The  Robbers;'  Hood  for  his 
magnificent  'Eugene  Aram;'  Dumas  for  his 
'Celebrated  Crimes,'  and  so  on  through 
literature  of  all  times  and  countries.  This 
brilliant  band  of  criminals,  illuminated  and 
idealised  by  literary  limelight,  cannot  deny 
the  consanguineous  claims  of  poor,  abused, 
'Jack  Sheppard." 
It  would  indeed  be  a  waste  of  time  to  dwell 


88    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

upon  the  fallacies  of  this  argument;  but  it 
may  be  remarked  that  Ainsworth's  enthu- 
siastic defender  has  strangely  misread  "Jon- 
athan Wild,"  since  he  can  mention  that 
brilliant  satire  in  connection  with  the  New- 
gate School  of  Fiction;  he  might  as  well  have 
added  to  the  list  "Catherine."  Mr.  Ellis 
insists  that  the  Newgate  novels  of  Ainsworth 
are  moral  because  the  villains  end  on  the 
gallows.  He  ignores  the  fact  that,  while 
they  do  go  to  the  gallows,  they  go  as  heroes, 
not  as  malefactors;  but  he  inadvertently 
admits  that  Ainsworth  "threw  a  romantic 
glamour  over  his  merry  sinners,"  and  so, 
in  a  line,  he  gives  away  the  case  for  which  he 
has  fought  so  strenuously  in  many  pages. 

Forster  and  Thackeray  now  led  the  attack 
against  the  Newgate  School  of  Fiction. 
"Bad  as  we  think  the  morals,  we  think  the 
puffs  even  more  dangerous,"  Forster  wrote 
in  the  Examiner.  "Public  morality  and 
public  decency  have  rarely  been  more  en- 
dangered than  by  the  trumpeted  exploits 
of  'Jack  Sheppard." 

In    "Catherine,"    Thackeray    had    some- 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     89 

thing  to  say  of  one  of  Dickens's  books. 
"No  one,"  he  wrote,  "has  read  that  re- 
markable tale  of  *  Oliver  Twist'  without 
being  interested  in  poor  Nancy  and  her 
murderer;  and  especially  amused  and  tickled 
by  the  gambols  of  the  Artful  Dodger  and 
his  companions.  The  power  of  the  writer 
is  so  amazing,  that  the  reader  at  once  be- 
comes his  captive,  and  must  follow  him 
wherever  he  leads;  and  to  what  are  we 
led?  Breathless  to  watch  all  the  crimes  of 
Fagin,  tenderly  to  deplore  the  errors  of 
Nancy,  to  have  for  Bill  Sikes  a  kind  of  pity 
and  admiration,  and  an  absolute  love  for 
the  society  of  the  Dodger.  ...  A  most 
agreeable  set  of  rascals  indeed,  who  have 
their  virtues,  too,  but  not  good  company 
for  any  man.  We  had  better  pass  them  by 
in  decent  silence;  for,  as  no  writer  can  or 
dare  tell  the  whole  truth  concerning  them, 
and  faithfully  explain  their  vices,  there  is 
no  need  to  give  ex-parte  statements  of  their 
virtue."  It  was,  however,  mainly  against 
"Rookwood"  and  "Jack  Sheppard"  (the 
earlier  part  of  which  had  appeared  in  Bent- 


9°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

ley's  Miscellany)  that  Thackeray  tilted  in 
"Catherine,"  which  purported  to  be  written 
by  "Ikey  Solomons,  Esq.,  jr."  —  Ikey  Solo- 
mons having  been  a  notorious  "fence"  — 
and  was  dated  from  Horsemonger  Lane,  a 
particularly  unsavoury  district.  Thackeray 
stated  again  that  the  writers  of  the  Newgate 
School  of  Fiction  did  not  dare  to  paint  their 
heroes  as  the  scoundrels  he  knew  them  to 
be.  "In  Freeny's  (the  highwayman)  life," 
Thackeray  wrote  subsequently  in  "The  Irish. 
Sketch  Book"  (ch.  XV),  "one  man  may  see 
the  evil  of  drinking,  another  the  harm  of 
horse-racing,  another  the  danger  attendant 
on  early  marriage,  a  fourth  the  exceeding 
inconvenience  of  the  heroic  highwayman's 
life  —  which  a  certain  Ainsworth  in  com- 
pany with  a  certain  Cruikshank,  have  repre- 
sented as  so  poetic  and  brilliant,  so  prodigal 
of  delightful  adventure,  so  adorned  with 
champagne,  gold  lace,  and  brocade."  Thack- 
eray had  no  objection  to  a  novelist  taking 
a  villain  for  his  principal  character;  he 
himself  selected  Barry  Lyndon  for  one  such 
post  of  honour,  but  he  insisted  that  it  was 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     91 

bad  art,  as  well  as  dishonesty  and  immoral- 
ity, to  confuse  virtue  and  vice.  "Vice," 
he  wrote  in  his  paper  on  the  author  of 
"Tom  Jones,"  "  is  never  to  be  mistaken  for 
virtue  in  Fielding's  honest  downright  books; 
it  goes  by  its  name,  and  invariably  gets  its 
punishment.  See  the  consequences  of  hon- 
esty! Many  a  squeamish  lady  of  our  time 
would  fling  down  one  of  these  romances  with 
horror,  but  would  go  through  every  page  of 
Mr.  Ainsworth's  *  Jack  Sheppard '  with  perfect 
comfort  to  herself.  Ainsworth  dared  not 
paint  his  hero  as  the  scoundrel  he  knew  him 
to  be;  he  must  keep  his  brutalities  in  the 
background,  else  the  public  morals  will  be 
outraged,  and  so  he  produces  a  book  quite 
absurd  and  unreal,  and  infinitely  more  im- 
moral than  anything  Fielding  ever  wrote. 
*  Jack  Sheppard '  is  immoral  actually  because 
it  is  decorous.  The  Spartans,  who  used  to 
show  drunken  slaves  to  their  children,  took 
care,  no  doubt,  that  the  slaves  should  be 
really  and  truly  drunk.  Sham  drunkenness, 
which  never  passed  the  limits  of  propriety, 
but  only  went  so  far  as  to  be  amusing,  would 


9 2    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

be  rather  an  object  to  excite  youth  to  in- 
toxication than  to  deter  him  from  it,  and 
some  late  novels  have  always  struck  us  in 
the  same  light." 

Thackeray  decided  that  his  castigation  of 
these  immoral  novels  should  take  the  form 
of  a  story  in  which  all  the  principal  char- 
acters were  villains,  portrayed,  not  indeed 
so  vile  as  were  the  prototypes,  for  that  was 
impossible  to  do  in  the  page  of  a  magazine, 
but  so  nearly  to  life  as  the  public  could  be 
expected  to  tolerate.  With  this  object  in 
view  he  searched  the  "Newgate  Calendar," 
and  found  therein  the  very  heroine  for  such 
a  story  as  he  contemplated,  —  Mrs.  Cather- 
ine Hayes,  whose  history  has  been  admirably 
summarised  in  the  "Dictionary  of  National 
Biography"  by  Mr.  Alsager  Vian.  Cath- 
erine Hall  was  her  maiden  name,  and  she 
was  born  near  Birmingham  in  1690.  At  a 
very  early  age  she  was  led  into  evil  courses. 
At  the  age  of  sixteen  she  married  a  carpenter, 
John  Hayes,  by  whom  (it  is  to  be  hoped) 
she  had  twelve  children.  Some  years  after 
the  marriage,  they  went  to  London,  where 


CO 
X 


ci     S 

3 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     93 

near  Tyburn  they  set  up  a  small  shop  and 
supplemented  their  income  from  this  source 
by  letting  lodgings.  With  two  of  the  lodgers, 
Wood  and  Billings,  she  became  criminally 
intimate,  and  the  three  of  them  one  night 
in  March,  1726,  made  John  Hayes  drunk 
and  killed  him,  cutting  up  the  body,  and 
disposing  of  the  different  parts  in  different 
places.  One  portion  of  the  remains  was 
discovered,  and  then  another,  and  eventu- 
ally Mrs.  Hayes  and  Billings  were  arrested 
for  murder,  and  presently  Wood  was  cap- 
tured and  confessed.  Mrs.  Hayes  pleaded 
not  guilty,  but  was  convicted  of  petty  treason 
and  sentenced  to  be  burnt  alive.  The  men 
were  sentenced  to  be  hanged.  Wood  died 
in  Newgate  the  day  before  the  execution, 
and  Mrs.  Hayes  made  an  abortive  attempt 
to  poison  herself.  No  story  could  be  more 
sordid  or  unpleasant,  and  Thackeray  de- 
liberately mitigated  the  horrors  as  little  as 
possible.  "Catherine"  appeared  in  Eraser's 
Magazine  from  May,  1839,  to  February, 
1840,  and  the  author  was  heartily  pleased 
when  the  conclusion  was  reached.  "Having 


94    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

finished  our  delectable  meal,"  he  wrote,  "it 
behoves  us  to  say  a  word  or  two  by  way  of 
grace  at  its  conclusion,  and  to  be  heartily 
thankful  that  it  is  over.  It  has  been  the 
writer's  object  carefully  to  exclude  from  his 
drama  (except  in  two  very  insignificant 
instances  —  mere  walking  gentlemen  parts) 
any  characters  but  those  of  scoundrels  of 
the  very  highest  degree.  That  he  has  not 
altogether  failed  in  the  object  he  had  in 
view,  is  evident  from  some  newspaper  cri- 
tiques which  he  has  had  the  good  fortune 
to  see;  and  which  abuse  the  tale  of  'Cath- 
erine '  as  one  of  the  dullest,  most  vulgar,  and 
immoral  works  extant.  It  is  highly  gratify- 
ing to  the  author  to  find  that  such  opinions 
are  abroad,  as  they  convince  him  that  the 
taste  for  Newgate  literature  is  on  the  wane; 
and  that  when  the  public  critic  has  right 
down  undisguised  immorality  set  before  him, 
the  lowest  creature  is  shocked  at  it,  as  he 
should  be,  and  can  declare  his  indignation 
in  good  round  terms  of  abtise.  The  char- 
acters of  the  tale  are  immoral,  and  no  doubt 
of  it;  but  the  writer  humbly  hopes  the  end 


Newgate  School  of  Fiction     95 

is  not  so.  The  public  was,  in  our  notion, 
dosed  and  poisoned  by  the  prevailing  style 
of  literary  practice,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
administer  some  medicine  that  would  pro- 
duce a  wholesome  nausea,  and  afterwards 
bring  about  a  more  healthy  habit.  And, 
thank  Heaven,  this  effect  has  been  produced 
in  very  many  instances,  and  the  'Cath- 
erine' cathartic  has  acted  most  efficaciously. 
The  author  has  been  pleased  at  the  disgust 
which  his  work  has  excited,  and  has  watched 
with  benevolent  carefulness  the  wry  faces 
that  have  been  made  by  many  of  the  patients 
who  have  swallowed  the  dose." 

"Be  it  granted,"  so  the  book  concludes, 
"that  Solomons  is  dull,  but  don't  attack  his 
morality;  he  humbly  submits  that,  in  his 
poem,  no  man  shall  mistake  virtue  for  vice, 
no  man  shall  allow  a  single  sentiment  of 
pity  or  admiration  to  enter  his  bosom  for  any 
character  of  the  piece;  it  being,  from  begin- 
ning to  end,  a  scene  of  unmixed  rascality 
performed  by  people  who  never  deviate  into 
good  feeling.  And  although  he  doth  not 
pretend  to  equal  the  great  modern  authors 


9 6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

whom  he  hath  mentioned,  in  wit  or  descrip- 
tive power;  yet,  in  the  point  of  moral,  he 
meekly  believes  that  he  has  been  their  supe- 
rior; feeling  the  greatest  disgust  for  the  char- 
acters he  describes,  and  using  his  humble 
endeavour  to  cause  the  public  also  to  hate 
them." 

"It  is  a  disgusting  subject  and  no  mis- 
take," Thackeray  wrote  to  his  mother.  "It 
was  a  mistake  all  through.  It  was  not  made 
disgusting  enough  —  that  was  the  fact,  and 
the  triumph  of  it  would  have  been  to  make 
readers  so  horribly  horrified  as  to  cause  them 
to  give  up  or  rather  throw  up  the  book  and 
all  its  kind;  whereas  you  see  the  author  had 
a  sneaking  kindness  for  his  heroine,  and  did 
not  like  to  make  her  quite  worthless."  Yet, 
in  spite  of  the  author's  lament,  "Catherine" 
achieved  its  object,  for  Ains worth  gave  way 
before  the  attack,  and  made  no  further  con- 
tribution to  the  Newgate  School  of  Fiction. 


CHAPTER    V 

Thackeray  as  Artist 

WHEN,  in  July,  1833,  Thackeray  was 
acting  as  Paris  correspondent  of 
the  National  Standard  and  Journal  of  Litera- 
ture, Science,  Music,  Theatricals,  and  the  Fine 
Arts,  a  little  paper  first  edited  and  subse- 
quently purchased  by  him,  he  wrote  to  his 
mother:  "I  have  been  thinking  very  seri- 
ously of  turning  artist.  I  can  draw  better 
than  I  can  do  anything  else,  and  certainly 
I  should  like  it  better  than  any  other  occu- 
pation, as  why  shouldn't  I?"  The  last 
sentence  seems  to  hint  that  some  objections 
had  been  raised  to  his  following  this  pro- 
fession, and,  indeed,  in  the  earlier  years  of 
the  last  century  parents  and  guardians  did 
not  allow  those  young  men  who  were  under 
their  control  to  embark  upon  such  a  Bohe- 
mian career  as  that  of  art.  Perhaps  in  this 
case  no  objections  were  raised,  perhaps  they 


9 8    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

were  raised  and  overruled  by  an  enthusi- 
astic young  man.  Be  this  as  it  may,  early 
in  the  following  year,  when  the  National 
Standard  came  to  an  untimely  end,  its 
editor  remained  in  Paris  to  devote  him- 
self in  all  seriousness  to  the  study  of 
Art. 

Even  as  a  child  Thackeray  was  fond  of 
drawing,  and  at  a  very  early  age  he  used  his 
pencil  and  his  paint  box.  He  ornamented 
the  leaves  of  his  Charterhouse  school-books 
with  caricatures  of  his  masters  and  his 
schoolfellows,  and  embellished  with  illustra- 
tions his  copies  of  "Don  Quixote,"  "The 
Castle  of  Otranto"  (in  which  there  is  an 
intensely  amusing  sketch  of  Manfred  hold- 
ing the  door  against  Matilda),  "Robinson 
Crusoe,"  "Joseph  Andrews,"  and  many 
other  stories.1  His  skill  was  appreciated 
even  in  these  early  days,  and  many  years 
later,  in  a  "Roundabout  Paper,"  he  referred 

1  Most  of  these  volumes  have  found  their  way  to  the  auction 
room,  where  they  fetched  very  high  prices.  Ainsworth's  Latin 
Dictionary,  which  Thackeray  bought  second-hand  for  a  shilling, 
sold  at  his  death  for  nearly  five  pounds,  and  recently  changed 
hands  at  twenty-four  pounds! 


KING-     GLUMPUS. 

THACKERAY'S  DRAWING  FOR  "KING  GLTJMPTJS 


Thackeray  as  Artist  99 

to  these  youthful  efforts,  "O  Scottish  Chiefs, 
did  n't  we  weep  over  you!  O  Mysteries  of 
Udolpho,  did  n't  I  and  Briggs  (Minor)  draw 
pictures  out  of  you!  Efforts  feeble  indeed, 
but  still  giving  pleasure  to  ourselves  and  our 
friends.  'I  say,  old  boy,  draw  us  Vivaldi 
tortured  in  the  Inquisition,'  or  'Draw  us 
Don  Quixote  and  the  Windmills,'  amateurs 
would  say  to  boys  who  had  a  love  of  draw- 
ing." Many  of  the  drawings  done  at  school 
have  been  preserved,  and  a  number  were 
reproduced  in  the  interesting  volume  en- 
titled "Thackeray  ana." 

At  Cambridge  Thackeray  amused  himself 
in  a  similar  manner,  and,  inter  alia,  sketched 
some  droll  pictures  descriptive  of  life  at 
the  University  —  "The  Mathematics  Lec- 
turer," "The  Classman,"  "The  Plodder," 
"The  Grinder,"  etc.;  and,  by  far  the  best, 
"First  Term,"  showing  a  student  hard  at 
work,  and  "Second  Term,"  showing  the 
same  student  lying  in  the  well  of  a  sofa, 
the  back  of  which  is  turned  to  the  spectator, 
who  can  see  only  the  cigar  and  the  boots  of 
the  idler.  These  must  not  be  confused  with 


ioo    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

two  other  drawings,  bearing  the  same  titles, 
and  similar  in  subject,  but  not  nearly  so 
amusing,  reprinted  in  the  slim  tome  of 
"Etchings  done  while  at  Cambridge,"  pub- 
lished by  Sotheran  in  1878.  Of  this  latter 
collection  those  most  worthy  of  mention  are 
the  plates  "Departure  for  Cambridge"  and 
"Arrival  from  Cambridge."  These  were 
companion  pictures,  a  favourite  form  in- 
dulged in  by  the  artist,  who,  in  "Pendennis," 
gave  "Pen's  Staircase  —  1,  A  Little  Dinner;" 
and  "Pen's  Staircase  —  2,  A  Few  Little 
Bills,"  which  were  quite  in  the  style  of  his 
early  vein. 

Soon  after  leaving  Cambridge,  Thackeray 
went  abroad,  and  he  has  recorded  how  it 
was  his  delight  in  those  days  to  make  cari- 
catures for  children,  and  how,  when  he  re- 
visited Weimar  more  than  twenty  years 
later,  he  was  touched  to  find  they  were  re- 
membered, and  that  several  had  been  kept. 
Of  the  few  that  have  been  reprinted  the  best 
are  a  set  of  "Legal  Definitions  (by  One  who 
may  be  called  to  the  Bar)." 

In  the  autumn  of  1831   Thackeray  was 


Thackeray  as  Artist         101 

entered  as  a  student  at  the  Middle  Temple, 
where  he  read  with  the  special  pleader  and 
conveyancer,  Taprell,  and  rented  chambers 
at  No.  1,  Hare  Court.  He  never  took  kindly 
to  the  study  of  law,  as  readers  of  "Pen- 
dennis"  are  well  aware,  and  when  he  came 
of  age,  in  July,  1832,  he  gave  up  all  pretence 
of  reading  for  the  Bar.  Then  began  his  con- 
nection with  the  National  Standard,  in  which 
paper  his  first  sketches  appeared.  They 
were  fourteen  in  number,  and  included  an 
illustration  to  "The  Devil's  Wager"  (re- 
printed in  "The  Paris  Sketch-Book"),  and 
caricatures  of  Louis  Philippe,  Braham,  Alfred 
Bunn,  N.  M.  Rothschild,  Sir  Peter  Laurie, 
and  Crockford.  The  drawings  were  rough, 
however,  and  do  not  show  the  promise  of 
some  of  his  earlier  work. 

It  was  about  this  time  that  he  wrote 
and  illustrated  half-a-dozen  sets  of  nursery 
rhymes,  entitled  "Simple  Melodies,"  and  the 
very  amusing  series  of  sketches  depicting 
scenes  from  an  imaginary  melodrama,  en- 
titled "The  Bandit's  Revenge,  or,  The  Fatal 
Sword."  A  less  elaborate  version  of  "The 


102    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Bandit's  Revenge,"  entitled  "Vivaldi,"  ap- 
peared in  the  "Biographical"  edition  of 
Thackeray's  Works. 

At  first  Thackeray  made  his  sketches  for 
the  amusement  of  his  friends.  "If  I  had  only 
kept  the  drawings  from  his  pen  which  used 
to  be  chucked  about  as  though  they  were 
nothing!"  more  than  one  person  exclaimed 
to  Anthony  Trollope,  who  has  told  us  of 
an  album  of  drawings  and  letters  which,  in 
the  course  of  twenty  years,  from  1829  to 
1849,  were  sent  by  Thackeray  to  his  life- 
long friend,  Edward  FitzGerald,  the  trans- 
lator of  Omar.  As  time  passed,  however, 
he  was  persuaded  that  his  work  might  have 
some  pecuniary  value,  and  eventually  he 
sought  a  market  for  his  caricatures.  He  did 
find  a  Mr.  Gibbs,  who  offered  to  dispose  of 
them  for  him,  but  whether  he  was  able  to 
do  so  or  not  is  unrecorded  in  the  history  of 
the  house  of  Thackeray. 

When  Thackeray  settled  at  Paris,  after 
the  failure  of  the  National  Standard,  he  spent 
most  of  his  days  in  the  studios,  at  first 
studying  with  Brine,  a  well-known  artist, 


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Thackeray  as  Artist          103 

and  afterwards  with  Gros,  a  favourite  pupil 
of  the  great  David.  What  his  masters 
thought  is  not  known,  but  he  reported  him- 
self satisfied  with  his  progress,  and  thought, 
if  he  worked  hard,  in  a  year  he  might  pro- 
duce something  at  which  it  would  be  worth 
while  to  look;  but,  he  wrote  naively  to 
his  mother,  it  would  require  at  least  that 
time  to  gain  any  readiness  with  his  brush! 
He  devoted  many  hours  to  the  picture- 
galleries,  where  now  and  then  he  copied  a 
picture  —  a  Watteau  or  a  Lucas  van  Leyden 
("a  better  man,  I  think,  than  Albert  Diirer, 
and  mayhap  as  great  a  composer  as  Raphael 
himself").  Edinburgh  Reviewer  Abraham 
Hayward,  writing  of  "Vanity  Fair"  in 
January,  1848,  well  remembered  "ten  or 
twelve  years  ago  finding  him  day  after  day 
engaged  in  copying  pictures  in  the  Louvre, 
in  order  to  qualify  himself  for  his  intended 
profession." 

In  1836  Thackeray  published  "Flore  et 
Zephyr.  Ballet  Mythologique  Dedie  a  Flore 
par  Theophile  Wagstaffe,"  being  a  series  of 
eight  drawings  with  a  pictorial  wrapper.  It 


104    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

is  a  delightfully  amusing  production,  original 
in  conception,  unconventional  in  design,  and 
clearly  showing  how  thoroughly  developed, 
even  at  that  date,  was  Thackeray's  sense  of 
humour. 

Soon  after  Thackeray  came  to  London  on 
business  connected  with  the  starting  of  the 
Constitutional  (and  Public  Ledger),  a  paper 
in  which  his  stepfather  and  himself  were 
deeply  interested  as  part-proprietors.  Dur- 
ing this  visit,  Seymour,  the  designer  of 
"Pickwick"  committed  suicide.  It  came  to 
Thackeray's  ears  that  the  designs  of  the 
artist  who  took  his  place  did  not  satisfy 
Dickens,  and  he  made  the  now  historic  offer 
to  illustrate  the  book.  The  offer  was  re- 
fused, and  Thackeray  always  insisted  on 
referring  to  it  as  "Mr.  Pickwick's  lucky 
escape."  "Had  it  not  been  for  the  direct 
act  of  my  friend  who  has  just  sat  down,  I 
should  most  likely  never  have  been  included 
in  the  toast  which  you  have  been  pleased  to 
drink;  and  I  should  have  tried  to  be,  not  a 
'writer,  but  a  painter  or  designer  of  pictures," 
he  said  years  later  when,  at  a  Royal  Acad- 


Thackeray  as  Artist         105 

emy  dinner,  he  responded  to  the  toast  of 
Literature  with  which  his  name  and  Dickens's 
were  associated.  "That  was  the  object  of 
my  early  ambition;  and  I  can  remember 
when  Mr.  Dickens  was  a  very  young  man, 
and  had  commenced  delighting  the  world 
with  some  charming  humorous  works,  of 
which  I  cannot  mention  the  name,  but 
which  were  coloured  light  green,  and  came 
out  once  a  month,  that  this  young  man 
wanted  an  artist  to  illustrate  his  writings; 
and  I  recollect  walking  up  to  his  chambers 
in  Furnival's  Inn  with  two  or  three  drawings 
in  my  hand,  which,  strange  to  say,  he  did 
not  find  suitable.  But  for  the  unfortunate 
blight  which  came  over  my  artistical  ex- 
istence, it  would  have  been  my  pride  and 
pleasure  to  have  endeavoured  one  day  to 
find  a  place  on  these  walls  for  one  of  my 
performances.  This  disappointment  caused 
me  to  direct  my  attention  to  a  different  walk 
of  art,  and  now  I  can  only  hope  to  be  'trans- 
lated* on  these  walls,  as  I  have  been,  thanks 
to  my  talented  friend,  Mr.  Egg." 

The  Constitutional  was  a  failure,  and  it 


106    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

went  under  in  the  summer  of  1838,  carrying 
with  it  Thackeray's  patrimony,  or  all  that 
remained  after  losses  at  cards,  and  the 
failure  of  an  Indian  bank  in  which  a  portion 
of  it  had  been  invested.  The  young  man 
had  just  married,  and  it  was  important  that 
money  should  be  forthcoming.  Literary 
work  was  offered  in  abundance  and  perforce 
accepted.  Thereupon  he  abandoned  the 
hope  of  becoming  a  serious  painter,  though  to 
the  end  of  his  days  he  never  ceased  to  prac- 
tise the  lighter  vein  of  art.  Indeed,  from  the 
time  when  he  was  a  slim  young  man,  cover- 
ing with  sketches  every  scrap  of  paper  lying 
about,  drawing  was  his  principal  amuse- 
ment. All  his  life  he  preferred  the  pencil 
to  the  pen,  and  when  he  found  the  strain  of 
literary  composition  irksome,  he  would  turn 
with  pleasure  and  a  sense  of  relief  to  the 
drawing-board.  "The  sketches  as  they  are 
given  here  are  scarcely  to  be  counted  work," 
Lady  Ritchie  wrote  in  the  preface  to  the 
volume  of  drawings  published  posthumously 
under  the  title  of  "The  Orphan  of  Pimlico." 
"The  hours  which  he  spent  upon  his  drawing- 


s^rc* 

I  \ 


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T.ONT)air:H.CIINNTNGHAM.l,Sr  MARTINS  PLACE.  TRAFALGAR  SOITARE. 
1941. 


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See  pcje  110 


Thackeray  as  Artist          107 

blocks  and  sketch-books  brought  no  fatigue 
or  weariness.  They  were  of  endless  interest 
and  amusement  to  him,  and  rested  him  when 
he  was  tired.  It  was  only  when  he  came  to 
etch  upon  steel  or  to  draw  for  the  engraver 
upon  wood  that  he  complained  of  effort  and 
want  of  ease;  and  we  used  often  to  wish  that 
his  drawings  could  be  given  as  they  were 
first  made,  without  the  various  transmigra- 
tions of  wood  and  steel,  and  engraver's  toil 
and  printer's  ink."  But  he  was  undoubtedly 
wise  to  give  up  painting.  Even  Henry  Reeve, 
who  was  inclined  to  judge  sympathetically, 
declared  that  he  would  willingly  set  him  to 
copy  a  picture  of  Raphael,  as  far,  at  least, 
as  the  drawing  went,  but  that  the  young 
artist,  on  his  own  confession,  did  not  seem 
likely  to  get  into  a  system  of  massive 
colouring. 

An  interesting  problem  not  yet  solved  is 
what  were  Thackeray's  earliest  writings  in 
Eraser's  Magazine.  A  question  equally  in- 
teresting, and  one  which  no  one  has  yet 
attempted  to  answer,  is  what  were  his 
earliest  drawings  in  that  periodical.  There 


io8    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

is  a  note  penned  by  an  anonymous  scribbler 
in  the  copy  of  Fraser's  Magazine  for  April, 
1838,  belonging  to  the  London  Library, 
ascribing  a  portrait  of  Sidney  Smith  to 
Thackeray.  Of  course  the  writer's  authority 
for  this  statement  is  unknown,  but  it  opens 
up  a  new  field  for  speculation.  The  principal 
drawings  in  this  magazine  known  to  be  by 
Thackeray  are  the  five  plates  accompanying 
"The  Yellowplush  Correspondence,"  and 
the  four  plates  accompanying  "Catherine." 

In  other  fields  Thackeray  was  as  busy  with 
his  pencil  as  with  his  pen.  He  supplied  twelve 
full-page  illustrations  to  Douglas  Jerrold's 
"Men  of  Character"  (1838);  and  contributed 
two  drawings  to  the  Anti-Corn  Law  Circular, 
entitled,  "Illustrations  of  the  Rent-Laws: 
No.  1,  Poles  offering  Corn;  No.  2,  The 
Choice  of  a  Loaf."  In  1840  he  made  arrange- 
ments with  Cunningham,  the  publisher  of 
"The  Second  Funeral  of  Napoleon,"  to  issue 
a  series  of  "Sketches  by  Spec,"  but  only 
No.  I  appeared:  "Britannia  protecting  the 
Drama,"  signed  with  the  famous  spectacles. 
Britannia  is  seated,  holding  a  trident,  sur- 


Thackeray  as  Artist          109 

rounded  by  lionesses,  a  panther  and  a  lamb, 
and  at  her  feet  is  a  bust  of  Shakespeare, 
lying  on  its  side,  as  a  personification  of  the 
drama.  Underneath  the  sketch  is  the  follow- 
ing quaint  letterpress :  — 

EXPLANATION  OF  THE  HALLEGOBY 

This  ladies  and  gentlemen  is  a  Hallegory,  and  rep- 
resents Britanny  patronising  hof  the  Drama  —  Look 
at  the  Drama  laying  at  her  feet  &  over  it  remark  the 
Lioness  is  lifting  hof  her  leg. 

That 's  Britanny  —  she 's  holding  hof  a  pitch  fork 
(as  well  she  may  in  sich  company)  and  the  hanimals 
round  about  her  why,  they  are  the  principal  hactors. 
For  some  parts  (especially  for  BLOODY  TRAGEDY) 
they  beat  the  Common  Garden  ones  hollow,  and  that 's 
why  Britanny  goes  to  Dury  Lane. 

Look  at  the  Lamb  (hemblem  of  hinnocence!)  has 
lying  between  the  legs  of  the  Panther,  and  thinking 
of  the  kind  souls  who  got  him  of  the  situation.  Brit- 
anny 's  caressing  the  lioness,  for  she 's  conspicuous  for 
humanity,  &  theres  no  sich  proof  of  kindness  as  being 
fond  of  the  brute  beasteses. 

The  figure  of  Britanny  is  taken  from  the  rewerse  of 
that  famous  coin,  the  British  Halfpenny,  some  people 
think  it  would  apply  to  coins  more  waluable  and  is 
the  very  thing  for  the  REWERSE  of  A  SOVERING. 

The  next  important  item  in  the  artistic 
record  of  Thackeray's  life  is  "The  Paris 


1 1  o    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Sketch-Book"  (1840)  with  numerous  sketches. 
This  was  followed  by  "Comic  Tales  and 
Sketches"  (1841),  a  collection  of  stories 
that  had  appeared  in  various  periodicals. 
In  these  volumes  "The  Yellowplush  Cor- 
respondence" is  furnished  with  five  original 
plates  in  place  of  those  which  had  accompa- 
nied it  during  its  serial  publication;  "Some 
Passages  in  the  Life  of  Major  Gahagan" 
with  four;  and  "The  Professor"  and  "The 
Bedford  Row  Conspiracy"  with  one  each. 
None  of  these  were  ever  reprinted  until 
recently,  which  seems  strange,  as  they  are 
among  the  best  drawings  ever  executed  by 
Thackeray,  and  the  illustrations  to  "Major 
Gahagan"  are  delightful.  There  was  also 
a  pictorial  title-page  to  "Comic  Tales  and 
Sketches,"  wherein  are  portrayed  the  figures 
of  Titmarsh,  Yellowplush,  and  Gahagan,  who, 
the  author  tells  us,  little  thinking  how  the 
word  spoken  in  jest  was  by  and  by  to  come 
true,  "are  supposed  to  be  marching  hand 
in  hand,  and  are  just  on  the  very  brink  of 
immortality." 

The  verses  which  appeared  in  the  Nation 


LONDON* 
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Thackeray  as  Artist          m 

(1843),  entitled  "Daddy,  I'm  Hungry," 
were  accompanied  by  an  illustration.  Thack- 
eray also  sent  to  the  same  paper  a  second 
drawing  —  a  stage  coach,  a  royal  mail,  with 
a  Highland  driver  and  guard  in  plaids,  but 
with  no  passengers,  at  which  the  country 
people  are  jeering.  This  sketch,  the  late 
Sir  Charles  Gavan  Duffy,  the  editor  of  the 
Nation,  informed  the  present  writer,  was 
not  printed,  because  the  controversy  with 
which  it  was  concerned  was  brought  to  a 
premature  close  by  a  decree  of  the  govern- 
ment. It  was  not  accompanied  by  any 
verses,  he  added,  because  it  told  its  story  so 
well. 

It  is  only  necessary  to  give  a  list  of  the 
better-known  works  illustrated  by  the  author: 
"Vanity  Fair,"  "Pendennis,"  "The  Vir- 
ginians," and  "Philip"  (with  the  assistance 
of  the  late  Frederick  Walker),  "Mrs.  Per- 
kins's Ball,"  "Our  Street,"  "Dr.  Birch  and 
his  Young  Friends,"  and  "The  Kickleburys 
on  the  Rhine  "  —  some  copies  of  each  of 
these  Christmas  Books  contained  coloured 
plates;  "The  Ring  and  the  Rose,"  "Lovel 


ii2    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

the     Widower,"     and     the     "Roundabout 
Papers." 

The  number  of  drawings  contributed  by 
Thackeray  to  Punch  was  immense.  Besides 
those  familiar  to  readers  of  his  collected 
works,  there  are  a  hundred  or  more  which 
have  never  yet  been  reprinted  except  in 
Messrs.  Macmillan's  editions  of  Thackeray's 
Works.  Thackeray  illustrated  all  the  best 
of  his  burlesques,  ballads,  and  tales  which 
appeared  in  this  periodical:  "Miss  Tickle- 
toby's  Lectures  on  English  History,"  "The 
History  of  the  Next  French  Revolution," 
"Wanderings  of  the  Fat  Contributor," 
"  Jeames's  Diary,"  "The  Snobs  of  England," 
"Love  Songs,"  "Prize  Novelists,"  "Travels 
and  Sketches  in  London,"  "Bow  Street 
Ballads,"  "  Mr.  Brown's  Letters  to  a  Young 
Man  about  Town,"  and  the  "Discourses  by 
Dr.  Solomon  Pacifico."  This  list,  however, 
covers  but  a  portion  of  the  contributions,  which 
begins  with  an  initial  letter  to  "The  Legend 
of  Jawbrahim-Heraudee"  (June  18th,  1842), 
ends  with  the  illustration  to  UA  Second 
Letter  to  an  Eminent  Personage"  (Sept. 


•ra 


LONDON:  PUNCH  OFFICE,  85.  FLEET  STREET. 


[PRWB  St.  At] 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  COVER  TO  THE  FIRST 
EDITION  OF  "THE  BOOK  OF  SNOBS" 

From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Thackeray  as  Artist         1 1 3 

25th,  1854),  and  includes  social  cuts,  thumb- 
nail sketches,  initial  letters,  drawings  ac- 
companying his  own  writings,  and  even 
illustrations  to  the  letter-press  of  other 
writers. 

As  an  artist  Thackeray  was  always  at  his 
best  when  illustrating  his  own  writings.  As 
has  already  been  said,  the  chance  of  his  mak- 
ing a  success  as  a  serious  painter  was  ex- 
tremely remote;  but  there  has  rarely  been 
an  artist  who  made  his  drawings  so  helpful 
to  the  text.  Indeed,  the  characters  are 
depicted  as  truly  by  the  pencil  as  by  the  pen, 
and  they  tell  the  story  together.  Thackeray's 
drawing  may  not  always  have  been  correct, 
the  perspective  may  occasionally  have  been 
wrong,  and  an  arm  may  sometimes  have 
borne  a  strong  resemblance  to  a  fin,  but  for 
quaint  fancy  and  humour  his  illustrations 
have  seldom  been  surpassed. 

Take  "Vanity  Fair"  and  study  the  picto- 
rial work  from  the  initial  W,  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Chapter  I.,  to  the  "Finis"  tail-piece, 
which  shows  the  children  shutting  up  the 
puppets  in  the  box  after  the  play  is  played 


ii4    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

out.  Look  at  the  illustration  on  the  cover 
of  the  monthly  parts  and  at  that  on  the  title- 
page  —  the  former  portraying  the  jester, 
standing  on  a  cask,  haranguing  the  yokels 
who  are  looking  up  at  him,  open-mouthed; 
the  latter  portraying  the  jester,  lying  on  the 
ground,  weary  and  worn,  looking  into  a  glass 
which  reflects  a  countenance  that  is  any- 
thing but  gay.  Look  at  "Rebecca's  Fare- 
well"—  little  Laura  Martin  crying  bitterly 
because  dear,  kind  Amelia  Sedley  is  leaving 
the  school,  and  Becky  hurling  out  of  the 
carriage  the  copy  of  Johnson's  Dictionary,  to 
the  dismay  of  Miss  Jemima  Pinkerton,  who, 
good-natured  soul,  had  presented  her  with 
it  as  a  souvenir  of  the  Academy  on  Chiswick 
Mall:  the  look  on  Becky's  face  clearly  indi- 
cates that  she  has  no  desire  to  remember 
the  existence  of  Miss  Pinkerton  or  the 
Academy,  where,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  she  had 
been  far  from  happy.  Look  at  Becky  show- 
ing off  "Miss  Jenny,"  the  doll,  to  her  father's 
rather  dissolute  Bohemian  friends;  or,  all 
alone,  building  a  house  of  cards  that,  we 
know  full  well,  will  sooner  or  later  fall,  after 


MR.    SEDLEY   AT    THE    COFFEE-HOUSE 

From  an  illustration  to  "Vanity  Fair"  by  Thackeray 

By  permission  of  Messrs.  Smith,  Elder,  &  Co. 


Thackeray  as  Artist          115 

the  fashion  of  such  unstable  edifices;  or 
fishing,  and  trying  to  entangle  stupid,  hulk- 
ing, conceited  Mr.  Jos;  or  as  governess  in 
the  schoolroom,  paying  just  so  much  atten- 
tion to  her  charges  as  might  be  expected  from 
a  lady  with  her  turn  of  mind.  Why,  the 
slender  thread  of  the  story  of  Miss  Rebecca 
Sharp  might  be  reconstructed  from  the  draw- 
ings! Look  at  Dobbin  and  Cuff  fighting  (in 
a  capital  C) ;  or  at  Miss  Eliza  Styles  (better 
known  in  the  world  as  Captain  Rawdon 
Crawley)  reading  a  letter  from  his  wife  at 
Mr.  Barnet's,  saddler,  Knightsbridge,  near 
the  barracks;  or  at  Moss  arresting  Rawdon 
in  Gaunt  Square,  while  Moss's  companion 
whistles  for  a  hackney  coach  to  convey  the 
trio  to  the  sponging-house  in  Cursitor  Street. 
Glance  at  the  tail-piece  to  Chapter  IX.  —  a 
delightful  sketch  of  that  sad  jester,  Thack- 
eray himself.  Turn  over  the  pages  and,  on 
the  eve  of  the  battle  of  Waterloo,  compare 
Becky  slumbering  tranquilly,  with  Mrs. 
Major  O'Dowd  as  Venus  preparing  the  arms 
of  Mars,  her  husband,  who  is  sleeping  heavily. 
Turn  over  more  pages,  and  observe  Miss 


1 1 6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Horrocks  of  the  ribbons  playing  the  piano 
with  the  sycophantic  Hester  by  the  side, 
all  admiration,  and  then  glance  at  Sir  Pitt 
nursed  by  Hester,  the  ill-conditioned,  bully- 
ing attendant. 

Take  any  volume  at  random.  Here  are 
the  "Prize  Novelists."  Look  at  George  de 
Barnwell,  forgetful  of  his  duties  as  a  sales- 
man, reading  the  godlike  language  of  the 
blind  old  bard,  "  Ton  d'apameibomenos  pro- 
sephe"  the  while  Martha  Millwood  wanted 
to  be  served  with  "  sixperin'orth  of  tea-dust." 
Look  at  little  Mendoza  fighting  Bullock,  the 
most  famous  bruiser  of  Cambridge,  before 
whose  fists  the  gownsmen  went  down  like 
ninepins.  Who  does  not  remember  the  way 
in  which  the  result  of  the  battle  is  indicated? 
— "After  the  coroner's  inquest,  Mendoza 
gave  ten  thousand  pounds  to  each  of  the 
bargeman's  ten  children."  Or  the  interview 
between  Louis  Philippe  and  Mendoza?  Or 
the  two  drawings  of  the  executioner  in 
"Barbazure,"  the  first  when  apparently  he 
is  about  to  strike  off  the  head  of  Fatima; 
the  second  in  which  he  has,  with  one  stroke 


o  o 

'          — 


«   H    § 

a  3 
§  *  1 

B      J 

•<      05 

H 
Dp 
P 
J 


Thackeray  as  Artist          117 

of  his  tremendous  sword,  decapitated  Barba- 
zure?  There  is  the  giant's  head,  with  its 
plumed  cap,  two  feet  higher  in  the  air.  But 
best  of  all  is  the  attack  of  Harry  Fogarty 
and  the  Onety-oneth  regiment.  What  though 
two  pistols  are  pointed  at  his  head,  and 
Napoleon  himself  is  exercising  his  old  trade 
as  an  artilleryman,  Phil  Fogarty  escapes 
without  a  scar!  What  though  Phil  was 
captured!  On  his  Irish  horse  Bugaboo  he 
jumped  over  the  Emperor  on  horseback, 
and  went  away  with  an  army  of  a  hun- 
dred and  seventy-three  thousand  eight  hun- 
dred men  at  his  heels!  More  admirable 
burlesque  sketches  than  these  do  not  exist. 
Or  take  "Pendennis."  Look  at  Fanny 
Bolton  in  bed,  her  two  little  sisters  sleeping 
by  her  side.  The  poor,  foolish  little  girl  is 
reading  the  young  Lothario's  novel  entitled 
"Walter  Lorraine,"  and  thinking  all  sorts  of 
flattering  things  about  the  author.  Poor 
child !  —  she  thought  to  die  of  a  disappointed 
love;  yet  turn  the  pages  and  see  "Fanny's 
new  Physician,"  the  hearty,  rather  dirty, 
Huxter,  who  consoled  this  Calypso. 


1 1 8    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

If  space  permitted  it  would  be  possible 
to  go  through  each  of  the  novels  and  point 
out  drawing  after  drawing,  delightful  to 
regard.  The  "Christmas  Books"  owe  more 
than  half  their  charm  to  the  plates.  Take 
Thackeray's  portraits  of  Mr.  Titmarsh  and 
Mr.  Mulligan  of  Ballymulligan,  of  Mr. 
Flam,  of  Mr.  Larkins;  of  those  famous 
literary  lights,  Miss  Bunion  and  Mr.  Hicks; 
of  Miss  Trotter,  whose  face  is  bright  at  the 
arrival  of  the  hideous  but  wealthy  Lord 
Methusalah;  of  Mr.  Beaumoris,  Mr.  Grig 
and  Mr.  Flinders;  and  of  a  host  of  others 
all  present  at  "Mrs.  Perkins's  Ball."  "Our 
Street"  contained  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  people  duly  sketched  by  the  author, 
from  the  inquisitive  old  lady  looking  out 
of  the  window  to  "the  lady  whom  nobody 
knows;"  from  "the  lion  of  the  street," 
Clarence  Bulbul,  who  wrote  the  Mayfair 
love-song,  "The  Cane-bottom 'd  Chair," 
which  appeared  in  the  columns  of  Punchy 
to  that  of  "the  happy  family,"  in  which  is 
depicted  the  happy  home-life  of  the  Fair- 
faxes. "The  Rose  and  the  Ring"  has  al- 


Thackeray  as  Artist         1 1 9 

ready  delighted  several  generations  of  great 
and  small  children.  The  drawings  were 
begun  at  Rome  as  Twelfth  Night  pictures 
for  his  children,  and  the  whole  was  sub- 
sequently finished  soon  after  in  London. 
Thackeray  revelled  in  this  sort  of  work: 
all  his  life  he  loved  to  amuse  children,  and 
to  his  love  for  the  "little  'uns"  he  has  left 
this  abiding  memory. 

Consider  the  originality  of  the  draw- 
ings, the  fancy,  the  whimsicality,  the  sense 
of  humour  which  inspired  them,  the  insight 
into  life  which  they  show,  the  power  of 
bringing  a  whole  scene  vividly  before  the 
observer.  Cavillers  say  that  Thackeray 
was  no  artist;  but  if  this  is  not  art,  why, 
then,  the  boundaries  of  art  should  at  once 
be  enlarged! 

Thackeray  was  under  no  misapprehension 
as  to  the  value  of  his  gift,  and  he  was  well 
aware  of  his  limitations.  For  instance, 
when  a  man  in  all  good  faith  said  to  him, 
"But  you  can  draw,"  he  instantly  set  him 
down  in  his  mind  as  a  snob  and  a  flatterer; 
and  when  Mr.  Corkran  found  him  grumb- 


120    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

ling  over  a  sketch  of  his  own:  "Look," 
said  he,  "now  George  [Cruikshank],  by  a 
few  touches,  throwing  some  light  or  shadow 
here  and  there,  would  make  this  a  picture. 
How  it  is  I  know  not,  but  I  certainly  can- 
not do  it  at  all."  Thackeray  frequently 
made  fun  of  himself  as  a  serious  painter 
in  his  art  criticisms  in  Eraser's  Magazine 
and  elsewhere;  and  in  his  very  first  paper 
on  art,  written  in  the  form  of  a  letter,  he 
remarked:  "I  wish  you  could  see  my  his- 
torical picture  of  '  Heliogabalus  in  the  ruins 
of  Carthage;'  or  the  full-length  of  'Sir 
Samuel  and  his  Lady,'  —  sitting  in  a  gar- 
den light,  reading  'The  Book  of  Beauty/ 
'Sir  Samuel  catching  a  butterfly,  which  is 
settling  on  a  flower-pot."  And,  still  laugh- 
ing at  himself,  he  wrote  to  Edmund  Yates 
in  the  fifties:  'You  have  a  new  artist  on 
the  Train,  I  see,  dear  Yates.  I  have  been 
looking  at  his  work,  and  I  have  solved  a 
problem.  I  find  there  is  a  man  alive  who 
draws  worse  than  myself!" 

Thackeray  realized  his  lack  of  technical 
skill  as  an  etcher.    He  asked  the  late  Henry 


ILLUSTRATION   FOR    "  A    LEGEND    OF   THE   RHINE  " 
From  the  picture  by  G.  Cruikshank 

By  permission  of  Messrs.  SmUh,  Elder,  &  Co.     See  page  134 


Thackeray  as  Artist          121 

Vizetelly,  the  founder  of  the  Pictorial  Times, 
to  find  him  some  one  who,  from  his 
water  colour  sketch,  would  etch  the  fron- 
tispiece to  "  Notes  of  a  Journey  from  Corn- 
hill  to  Grand  Cairo.'*  The  task  was 
entrusted  to  a  young  man  named  Thwaites, 
who  subsequently  put  on  the  wood  a  num- 
ber of  drawings  for  "Mrs.  Perkins's  Ball." 
Thackeray  saw,  however,  that  his  origi- 
nality was  more  valuable  than  an  inferior 
hand's  correctness  of  line.  "I  return  the 
drawings  after  making  a  few  alterations 
in  them,"  he  wrote  to  Mr.  Vizetelly  on 
one  occasion.  "Present  Mr.  Titmarsh's 
compliments  to  your  talented  young  friend, 
and  say  M.  A.  T.  would  take  it  as  a  great 
favour  if  he  would  kindly  confine  his  im- 
provements to  the  Mulligan's  and  Mrs. 
Perkins's  other  guest's  extremities.  In  your 
young  gentleman's  otherwise  praiseworthy 
corrections  of  my  vile  drawings,  a  certain 
je  ne  sais  quai,  which  I  flatter  myself  exists 
in  the  original  sketches,  seems  to  have  given 
him  the  slip,  and  I  have  tried  in  vain  to 
recapture  it.  Somehow  I  prefer  my  own 


122    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Nuremburg  dolls  to  Mr.  Thwaites's  super- 
fine wax  models." 

"You  will  not  easily  find  a  second  Thack- 
eray," Charlotte  Bronte  wrote  in  1848 
a  propos  of  Thackeray  as  a  draughtsman 
and  illustrator.  "How  he  can  render,  with 
a  few  black  lines  and  dots,  shades  of  ex- 
pression so  fine,  so  real;  traits  of  character 
so  minute,  so  subtle,  so  difficult  to  seize 
and  fix,  I  cannot  tell  —  I  can  only  wonder 
and  admire.  Thackeray  may  not  be  a 
painter,  but  he  is  a  wizard  of  a  draughts- 
man; touched  with  the  pencil,  the  paper 
lives.  And  then  his  drawing  is  so  refreshing: 
after  the  wooden  limbs  one  is  accustomed 
to  see  portrayed  by  common-place  illus- 
trators, his  shapes  of  bone  and  muscle 
clothed  with  flesh,  correct  in  proportion 
and  anatomy,  are  a  real  relief.  All  is  true 
in  Thackeray.  If  Truth  were  again  a  god- 
dess, Thackeray  should  be  her  high  priest." 

The  praise  is  high.  Whether  it  is  too 
high  time  will  show.  His  talent  was  of 
the  Hogarth  kind;  and  the  works  of  Ho- 
garth have  not  been  adjudged  valueless. 


Thackeray  as  Artist          123 

Thackeray  himself  always  declared  that 
although  he  was  not  a  first-rate  artist,  he 
was  not  half  so  bad  as  the  woodcutters 
made  him  appear.  And  an  inspection  of 
his  drawings  supports  this  view.  Certainly, 
though  he  lacked  academic  correctness  and 
technical  mastery,  the  undeniable  original- 
ity and  humour  of  his  sketches  will  secure 
for  them  a  very  long  lease  of  life.  They 
place  him  in  the  ranks  of  the  caricaturists 
on  a  level  with  Doyle,  and  not  far  below 
Leech  and  Cruikshank,  though,  as  far  as 
imaginative  power  is  concerned,  he  was 
the  equal  of  the  latter.  Whatever  may  be 
the  opinion  of  him  as  a  draughtsman,  few 
wTill  venture  to  dispute  his  great  merits  as 
the  illustrator  of  his  own  books. 


CHAPTER    VI 

Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators 

THACKERAY  has  had  innumerable 
illustrators.  These,  for  the  purposes 
of  this  paper,  may  be  divided  into  those 
who  furnished  the  illustrations  to  the  first 
editions,  and  those  of  a  later  generation 
who  contributed  to  subsequent  issues.  To 
the  former  class  belong  the  author,  Cruik- 
shank,  Leech,  Doyle,  Kenny  Meadows,  and 
Frederick  Walker  —  a  galaxy  of  talent.  To 
the  latter,  Fred  Barnard,  Lady  Butler, 
John  Collier,  Harry  Furniss,  Luke  Fildes, 
Linley  Sambourne,  E.  J.  Wheeler,  W.  J. 
Webb,  W.  Ralston,  and  many  others;  and, 
still  more  recently,  F.  W.  Robinson,  Francis 
Bedford,  Hugh  Thomson,  C.  E.  Brock, 
and  Miss  Hammond.  George  du  Maurier, 
strictly  speaking,  belongs  also  to  this  group, 
for  his  drawings  to  "Esmond"  did  not 
appear  in  the  first  edition;  but  as  that 


MR.  PIGEON.     ("CAPTAIN  ROOK  AND  MR.  PIGEON") 

From  a  drawing  by  Kenny  Meadows  in  "  Heads  of  the  People  " 


See  page  132 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators     125 

famous  historical  romance  was  published 
without  illustrations,  and  as,  consequently, 
his  work  did  not  supersede  that  of  an  earlier 
artist,  he  may  be  mentioned  among  the 
original  men. 

Reversing  the  usual  order,  the  later  draw- 
ings, as  for  the  most  part  they  are  less  famil- 
iar to  the  public,  may  be  first  considered. 
Both  Mr.  Robinson  and  Mr.  Bedford  illus- 
trated "Esmond"  —  but  as  illustrators  of 
this  book  the  artists  do  not  call  for  any 
particular  mention.  Their  work  was  with- 
out distinction,  conventional.  Miss  Chris 
Hammond  has  also  illustrated  the  story, 
but,  charming  as  are  her  designs,  she  has 
not  quite  succeeded  in  presenting  the  char- 
acters that  Thackeray  drew.  Take,  for 
example,  one  of  the  plates  in  which  Beatrix 
and  Henry  Esmond  are  depicted.  Henry 
has  just  told  his  cousin  that  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton,  her  affianced  husband,  has  been 
slain.  The  news  has  overpowered  her. 
She  has  looked  wildly  at  her  cousin,  and 
has  fallen  back  against  the  wall.  "And 
you  come  here  and  —  and  — you  killed  him!" 


126    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

she  cries.  "No,  thank  heaven!"  her  kins- 
man says;  "the  blood  of  that  noble  heart 
does  not  stain  my  sword!  In  its  last  hour 
it  was  faithful  to  you."  Esmond  is  por- 
trayed as  a  superior  person,  calm  and  un- 
moved; nothing  is  shown  of  the  horror  of 
that  last  hour  when  the  Duke  was  killed, 
nor  of  the  despair  of  Beatrix,  who  had 
played  for  the  strawberry  leaves,  had  won, 
and  at  the  eleventh  hour  had  lost  the  prize. 
All  her  hopes  were  dashed  to  the  ground. 
It  was  a  tragedy  for  her,  who  later  was 
to  play  for  the  love  of  a  prince,  and  per- 
haps to  dream  of  a  crown.  It  was  a  tragedy, 
and  Miss  Hammond  offers  only  a  social  cut 
with  the  performers  in  eighteenth-century 
garb. 

The  next  two  artists  to  whom  reference 
must  be  made,  and  tribute  paid,  are  Mr. 
Hugh  Thomson  and  Mr.  Charles  E.  Brock. 
Mr.  Thomson,  however,  has  not  as  yet 
illustrated  many  of  Thackeray's  stories, 
but  what  work  he  has  done  in  this  direction 
gives  good  reason  to  believe  that  the  suc- 
cess that  has  attended  it  may  incline  him 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    127 

to  extend  his  labours.  Nothing  could  be 
better  than  the  drawings  that  accompany 
"The  History  of  Samuel  Titmarsh  and  the 
Great  Hoggarty  Diamond."  Mr.  Thomson 
has  selected  for  one  of  his  subjects  the  well- 
known  scene  in  the  jeweller's  shop  where 
the  Countess  recognises  the  medallion  that 
gives  the  title  to  the  story:  "As  I  live," 
she  cries,  "it  is  the  great  Hoggarty  Dia- 
mond." The  Countess  conjured  up  by 
Mr.  Thomson  is  the  half-silly  yet  not 
always  undiscerning  woman  of  the  text; 
his  Lady  Jane  and  Lady  Fanny  are  well- 
contrasted,  the  one  dignified,  the  other 
brimming  over  with  fun;  while  Polonius, 
the  jeweller,  is  the  early  Victorian  trades- 
man to  the  life.  How  well  conceived  is  the 
drawing  depicting  the  Broughs  at  home. 
"Is  there  any  duke  in  the  land  can  give 
a  better  dinner  than  John  Brough?"  and 
that,  too,  of  Brough  at  his  office  dictating  to 
Samuel  Titmarsh  a  letter  that  is  to  bring 
within  his  net  the  property  of  a  well-to-do 
old  woman. 

Mr.  Brock  has  recently  issued  some  three 


128    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

hundred  sketches  distributed  over  an  entire 
edition  of  Thackeray's  prose  works.  These 
are  delightful,  admirably  planned  and  well 
executed,  and  it  may  safely  be  said  that  readers 
who  take  up  his  edition  to  decide  for  them- 
selves will  be  sure  to  find  much  to  please 
them.  What,  for  instance,  could  be  better 
than  the  portrait  of  Blanche  Crowder,  that 
very  large  woman  who  in  her  flounces  oc- 
cupies the  best  part  of  a  little  drawing-room ; 
or  the  sketch  in  which  is  shown  Jeames  de 
la  Pluche,  showing  himself  to  Mary  Ann 
Hoggins  in  all  the  glory  of  his  captain's  uni- 
form of  the  North  Diddlesex  Regiment  of 
Yeomanry  Cavalry?  In  the  tender  little 
picture  ^of  the  little  ingenue  confiding  her 
secrets  to  the  Old  Fogy,  Mr.  Brock  is  per- 
haps at  his  best.  And  his  best  is  very  good. 
The  first  complete  edition  of  Thackeray's 
works  was  issued  in  1867.  This,  which  is 
known  as  the  "Library"  edition,  included 
most  of  the  drawings  in  the  original  issues. 
Only  illustrations  to  "Esmond"  by  George 
du  Maurier  were  added.  Subsequently  a 
"Standard"  edition  was  brought  out,  but 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    129 

this  calls  for  no  comment  here.  In  1877, 
however,  a  "Cheaper  Illustrated"  edition 
was  placed  on  the  market.  This  contained 
the  work  of  the  second  group  of  illustrators, 
whose  names  have  already  been  given. 
These  drawings  superseded  the  originals, 
only  too  often  without  improving  upon 
them.  The  sketches  by  Mr.  Harry  Fur- 
niss  accompanying  "The  Tremendous  Ad- 
ventures of  Major  Gahagan"  are  espe- 
cially noteworthy.  Curiously  enough,  they 
bear  a  marked  resemblance  to  Thackeray's 
own  illustrations  to  the  story,  though  it 
is  more  than  probable  that  the  artist  never 
saw  the  novelist's  designs,  for  they  were 
not  issued  when  the  burlesque  was  serial- 
ised, and  only  appeared  in  a  volume  of 
reprints  which  for  a  long  time  past  has  been 
very  difficult  to  obtain.  Mr.  Furniss  has 
entered  into  the  spirit  of  burlesque,  and, 
as  it  were,  has  received  the  character  direct 
from  its  creator.  It  is  impossible  not  to 
smile  at  the  bombastic  figures.  Mr.  Barnard 
ranks  with  Mr.  du  Maurier  as  an  admirable 
illustrator  of  Thackeray's  works.  He  was 


1 30    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

not,  however,  uniformly  successful  in  his 
"Character  Sketches."  Too  frequently  he 
presented  merely  a  caricature.  Just  a  touch 
of  caricature  is  permissible,  perhaps,  but 
caricature  is  criticism,  and  the  illustrator 
should  not  be  the  critic  of  the  creator, 
but  a  sympathetic  friend.  Mr.  Barnard 
was  at  his  best  when  portraying  Becky 
Sharp,  Dobbin,  and  Colonel  Newcome, 
and  he  excelled  himself  in  the  presentation 
of  the  immortal  Costigan.  A  critic  might 
object  that  this  Costigan  looks  too  much 
like  a  sharper,  instead  of  the  poor,  drunken, 
swindling  reprobate  he  was.  But  there 
he  sits  in  his  daughter's  dressing-room,  on 
a  chair  in  the  corner  of  which  is  a  "property" 
crown,  disreputable  enough,  unkempt,  and 
with  his  hat  cocked  over  on  one  side.  It 
is  not  easy  to  caricature  the  Captain,  and 
this  may  be  at  least  one  reason  why  Mr. 
Barnard  is  most  successful  in  this  portrayal. 

As  has  already  been  stated,  the  "Esmond" 
sketches  by  George  du  Maurier  were  the 
novelty  of  the  edition  of  1867.  It  may  be 
said  that  no  artist  could  have  succeeded  better 


AT    THE    SICK   MAN  S    DOOR 

From  an  illustration  to  "The  Adventures  of  Philip"  by  Frederick 
Walker 

By  permission  of  Messrs.  Smith,  Elder,  &  Co.     See  page  133 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    131 

in  this  difficult  task,  and,  though  many 
have  tried,  none  have  equalled  the  designs 
in  black  and  white  by  this  master  of  line. 
Rarely  has  an  illustrator  so  happily  caught 
the  tone  of  a  book,  rarely  has  he  executed 
his  conception  so  admirably  as  Mr.  du 
Maurier.  Take  the  plates  one  by  one. 
Look  at  little  Henry  being  ordered  by  the 
Dowager  Lady  Castlewood  to  obey  the 
Jesuit  Father  Holt  in  everything;  or,  a 
little  later  at  Henry  reproached  unreason- 
ably by  the  reigning  Viscountess  for  having 
brought  the  smallpox  from  the  village  into 
the  house;  or,  years  after,  see  the  lad, 
dressed  as  a  divine,  watching  Rachel  and 
Beatrix  reading  from  the  same  book.  Turn 
over  the  pages  and  look  at  the  picture  of 
the  duel  between  Castlewood  and  Mohun 
(who  was  christened  Henry  by  the  novelist, 
though  his  name  was  Charles) ;  or  at  Rachel 
visiting  Harry  in  prison.  See  Harry  at  his 
mother's  simple  grave  in  the  garden  of  the 
convent  at  Brussels;  or  drinking  in  the 
tavern  with  Addison  and  "Dick"  Steele;  or 
informing  Beatrix  of  Hamilton's  death.  Or 


i32    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

again,  look  at  Beatrix  being  presented  to 
the  Pretender,  or  standing  at  bay  against 
Esmond  and  her  mother  and  brother.  Each 
drawing  is  admirable  indeed;  the  whole 
set  is  a  triumph. 

And  now,  having  cleared  the  ground, 
one  may  devote  some  consideration  to  the 
artists  who  contributed  to  the  original  edi- 
tions. Of  Kenny  Meadows  it  is  easy  to 
dispose.  Indeed,  it  can  scarcely  be  said 
that  he  illustrated  Thackeray,  for  in  all  prob- 
ability it'would  be  more  accurate  to  say  that 
Thackeray  furnished  the  letterpress  to  the 
drawings.  Kenny  Meadows  drew  a  series 
of  "Heads  of  the  People,  or,  Portraits  of 
the  English,"  around  which  "distinguished 
writers,"  so  runs  the  title-page,  wrote  "orig- 
inal essays."  To  this  work  Thackeray  con- 
tributed "Mr.  Rook  and  Captain  'Pigeon" 
(which  had  already  appeared  in  the  New 
York  Corsair),  "The  Artists,"  and  "The 
Fashionable  Authoress."  Five  plates,  almost 
unknown  to  the  present  generation,  accom- 
panied these  "Character  Sketches."  Mead- 
ows was  a  capable  mechanical  draughtsman. 


ILLUSTRATION   BY   CHARLES   E.  BROCK    FOR    "  TRAVELS  AND 
SKETCHES  IN  LONDON" 

By  permission  of  Messrs.  J.  M.  Dent  &  Co.,  Ltd.   See  page  126 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    133 

There  was  nothing  subtle  in  his  humour.    His 
work  has  not  lived. 

Frederick  Walker  only  came  upon  the 
scene  in  the  last  years  of  Thackeray's  life, 
when  the  novelist  was  weary  and  ill,  and 
did  not  feel  equal  to  illustrating  his  stories. 
Thackeray  found  it  troublesome  to  draw 
on  the  wood  the  illustrations  for  "The 
Adventures  of  Philip,"  when  that  story 
was  running  through  the  Cornhill  Maga- 
zine. Some  of  the  drawings,  executed  on 
paper,  when  done  on  wood  had  not  satis- 
fied him.  Walker  was  then  introduced  by 
his  publisher,  Mr.  George  Smith,  of  Messrs. 
Smith,  Elder  and  Company;  but  this  talented 
artist,  after  re-drawing  a  few  of  Thackeray's 
sketches,  declared  himself  capable  of  better 
work,  and  declined  to  go  on  with  the'  job. 
Eventually  the  work  was  left  in  his  hands 
with  only  written  suggestions,  though  some- 
times a  rough  pen-and-ink  sketch  by  the 
author  was  sent.  Probably  "Good  Samari- 
tans" was  the  first  drawing  executed  by 
him  on  his  own  responsibility.  Subsequently 
he  illustrated  the  fragment  of  "Denis  Duval," 


134    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

which  appeared  posthumously.  Frederick 
Walker  has  been  much  more  successful  in 
the  more  original,  and,  it  may  be  assumed, 
more  congenial  branches  of  his  art,  as  is 
only  to  be  expected.  His  illustrations  are 
admirably  drawn,  but  his  figures  lack  vi- 
tality, and  the  designs  seem  somewhat 
conventional. 

George  Cruikshank  and  John  Leech  oc- 
cupy the  proud  position  of  the  greatest 
humorous  artists  of  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury. Leech  only  contributed  a  few  little 
sketches  of  initial  letters  to  Thackeray's 
writings  in  Punch,  a  drawing  to  "An  Eastern 
Adventure  of  the  Fat  Contributor,"  and  one 
amusing  illustration  to  "A  Lucky  Specu- 
lator." In  this  last  stands  Jeames  in  his 
livery,  shaking  hands  with  his  master  Sir 
George  Flimsy,  who  congratulates  him  upon 
having  won  thirty  thousand  pounds  in  rail- 
road speculation.  This  sketch  is  especially 
interesting,  for  it  affords  an  opportunity  to 
contrast  Leech's  and  Thackeray's  humour. 
Leech's  Jeames  is  admirable,  with  the  smirk 
on  his  face,  the  embarrassment  caused  by 


AN    ILLUSTRATION    BY   JOHN   LEECH    FOR       AN    EASTERN 
ADVENTURE   OF   THE   FAT    CONTRIBUTOR  " 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    135 

his  master's  unexpected  friendliness,  withal 
a  certain  smug  complacency.  Cruikshank, 
at  whose  feet  Thackeray  sat,  was  never  at 
his  best  in  his  illustrations  to  the  novelist's 
works.  His  drawings  in  "A  Legend  of  the 
Rhine"  are  amusing,  but  not  wholly  satis- 
fying; and  the  same  may  be  said  of  those 
in  "Stubbs's  Calendar."  But  the  plates  to 
"Cox's  Diary"  are  more  like  the  real  thing. 
Still,  they  will  not  bear  comparison  with  the 
master's  other  work. 

Neither  was  Richard  Doyle  happiest  when 
illustrating  "The  Newcomes."  Thackeray 
had  intended  to  illustrate  the  story,  and 
actually  made  two  sketches  for  the  first 
number,  before  he  decided  that  Doyle  should 
furnish  the  drawings.  The  two  sketches 
were  adopted  and  redrawn  by  Doyle.  "He 
does  beautifully  and  easily  what  I  want  to 
do,  and  can't,"  said  the  author.  Doyle 
was  a  far  better  draughtsman,  but  he  was 
in  no  degree  Thackeray's  superior  in  origi- 
nality of  design,  and  he  was  not  his  equal 
as  an  illustrator;  yet  he  did  his  work  well, 
and  some  of  the  plates  were  excellent.  "A 


i36    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Letter  from  Clive"  was  one  of  these.  There 
is  the  Colonel  regaling  the  ladies  of  the 
regiment  with  Clive's  letter,  boring  some 
of  his  hearers  with  the  prattle,  being  laughed 
at  by  others,  but  with  a  kindly  laugh,  for 
the  simple-hearted  man  is  a  great  favourite, 
and  every  one  who  knows  him  and  can 
appreciate  his  modesty,  generosity,  and  hon- 
our, loves  him.  Where  is  there  anything 
more  touching  than  the  Colonel  as  "A 
Student  of  the  Old  Masters,"  sitting  alone 
before  the  pictures  that  his  son  loves,  and 
praying  to  be  able  to  understand  wherein 
lies  their  beauty,  so  that  he  may  be  the 
companion  of  the  lad  even  in  his  studies? 
Doyle  is  no  less  successful  when  "The 
Colonel  tells  Sir  Barnes  a  bit  of  his  mind" 
in  the  bank  parlour  before  the  bank  clerks. 
The  old  man,  towering  over  his  nephew, 
looks  the  personification  of  injured  inno- 
cence and  dignity.  "I  repeat,  sir,  I  con- 
sider you  guilty  of  treachery,  falsehood, 
and  knavery.  And  if  ever  I  see  you  at 
Bay's  Club,  I  will  make  the  same  state- 
ment to  your  acquaintance  at  the  west  end 


JEAMES   RETIRING    FROM   SERVICE 
From  an  illustration  to  "Jeames's  Diary"  by  John  Leech 


See  page  134 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    137 

of  the  town.  A  man  of  your  baseness  ought 
to  be  known,  sir;  and  it  shall  be  my  busi- 
ness to  make  men  of  honour  aware  of  your 
character.  .  .  .  Sir  Barnes  Newcome,  for 
fear  of  consequences  that  I  should  deplore, 
I  recommend  you  to  keep  a  wide  berth  of 
me."  Further  on  comes  an  illustration  of 
a  different  kind.  It  is  a  street  row  at  New- 
come,  where  the  election  for  the  member 
of  parliament  is  progressing.  "Newcome 
versus  Newcome."  It  is  in  Doyle's  best 
manner,  and  is  a  magnificent  picture  of  a 
crowd.  And  almost  at  the  end  of  the  book 
is  another  exquisite  design.  It  is  after  the 
final  quarrel  between  Clive  and  the  Cam- 
paigner, and  Clive  asks  his  father  to  come 
and  help  put  Tommy  to  bed.  "The  old 
man's  eyes  lighted  up;  his  scared  thoughts 
returned  to  him:  he  followed  his  two  chil- 
dren up  the  stairs,  and  saw  hi?  grandson 
in  his  little  bed;  and  as  he  walked  home 
with  him  he  told  me  how  sweetly  Boy  had 
said  'Our  Father,'  and  prayed  God  bless 
all  who  loved  him,  as  they  laid  him  to  rest." 
And  you  see  the  child,  in  his  white  night- 


138    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

shirt  on  his  knees  at  the  foot  of  the  little 
bed,  and  Clive  standing  reverently  by  the 
side;  and  the  old,  weary  Colonel,  seated, 
looking  lovingly  at  his  grandchild.  It  is 
a  pretty,  even  a  beautiful  sketch,  and  with 
it  we  may  take  leave  of  the  preux  chevalier 
sans  peur  et  sans  reproche,  whose  heart  was 
as  that  of  a  little  child,  and  who  so  soon 
after  was  to  stand  in  the  presence  of  the 
Master. 

If  Doyle  was  on  the  whole  successful  in 
his  treatment  of  the  themes  in  "The  New- 
comes,"  with  "Rebecca  and  Rowena"  he 
achieved  a  veritable  success.  His  illustra- 
tions to  this  burlesque  rank  with  his  best 
work.  He  was  less  fettered  by  the  more 
frivolous  text,  and  was  able  to  give  full 
play  to  his  humour.  Most  amusing  is  the 
"Assault  on  the  Castle  of  Chalus."  Could 
anything  be  better  than  the  expression  of 
the  fat  man  who,  mounted  on  a  six-foot 
ladder,  is  endeavouring  to  scale  a  twenty- 
foot  wall,  and  suddenly  becomes  aware  of 
three  spears  thrust  through  an  aperture 
within  an  inch  of  his  nose?  "Ivanhoe  slay- 


A    STUDENT   OF   THE   OLD   MASTERS 

From  an  illustration  to  "The  Xewcomes"  by  Richard  Doyle 

By  permission  of  Messrs.  Smith,  Elder,  A  Co.     See  page  136 


Thackeray  and  his  Illustrators    139 

ing  the  Moors"  is  every  whit  as  good.  It 
is  apparently  the  knight  contra  mundum. 
The  Moors,  hundreds  of  them,  have  set 
upon  him,  and,  with  the  greatest  ease,  he 
is  killing  them  by  tens.  The  ground  is 
littered  with  the  corpses  of  his  victims, 
and  in  the  background  on  the  hillock  stands 
his  horse,  calmly  watching  the  scene  with 
interest,  and  awaiting  placidly  his  master's 
return. 

Thackeray's  own  drawings  for  his  works, 
like  his  poetry,  have  been  overshadowed  by 
his  genius  as  a  novelist.  When  the  name 
of  the  great  man  is  mentioned  it  conjures 
up  the  picture  of  the  author  of  "Vanity 
Fair,"  "Pendennis,"  and  "Esmond,"  and 
the  excellence  of  his  work  as  an  illustrator 
has  been  overlooked.  This  is  the  mis- 
fortune of  the  public,  through  the  fault 
of  those  responsible  for  the  editions  of  his 
works  having  replaced  much  of  his  work 
with  that  of  other  men,  who  may  have 
been  better  artists,  but  have  never  ap- 
proached him  as  an  illustrator. 


CHAPTER    VII 

Thackeray's  Originals 

HE  who  would  trace  the  prototypes  of 
Thackeray's  characters  is  met  at  the 
outset  with  the  novelist's  declaration  that 
he  never  copied  any  one. 

"Mr.  Thackeray  was  only  gently  skilful  and 
assimilative  and  combinative  in  his  char- 
acters," said  the  late  George  Augustus  Sala. 
"They  passed  through  the  alembic  of  his 
study  and  observation.  The  Marquis  of 
Steyne  is  a  sublimation  of  half-a-dozen 
characters.  So  is  Captain  Shandon;  so  are 
Costigan  and  the  Mulligan.  And  the  finest 
of  Mr.  Thackeray's  characters  —  Becky,  Dob- 
bin, Jos  Sedley,  and  Colonel  Newcome  — 
are  wholly  original,  from  the  celebrity  point 
of  view  at  least."  The  accuracy  of  these 
statements  will  now  be  examined.  Yet, 
though  Thackeray  may  never  deliberately 
have  copied  anybody,  no  doubt,  as  is  the 


THE    EDITOR    OF       THE    CABINET   CYCLOPEDIA 
From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 


Thackeray's  Originals 

case  with  all  writers,  he  must,  though  perhaps 
all  unconsciously,  have  received  suggestions 
for  characters  from  persons  with  whom  he 
was  acquainted.  That  he  used  such  sugges- 
tions, sometimes  without  realising  that  he 
was  doing  so,  will  be  shown  in  the  case  of  the 
creation  of  that  particularly  objectionable 
young  lady,  Miss  Blanche  Amory,  who  has 
come  down  to  posterity  as  the  author  of 
"Mes  Larmes." 

Thackeray's  characters,  for  the  purposes 
of  this  paper,  may  best  be  divided  into  those 
of  whose  identity  there  can  be  no  doubt; 
and  those  of  which  the  prototype  cannot  with 
any  degree  of  certainty  be  stated. 

In  "The  Yellowplush  Correspondence"  — 
among  the  earliest  of  Thackeray's  writings  — 
Thackeray  lampooned  two  well-known  men  of 
the  day:  Doctor  Dionysius  Lardner,  the  edi- 
tor of  an  Encyclopaedia  and  of  the  "Cabinet 
Library,"  as  Docthor  Dioclesius  Larner  and 
Docthor  Athanasius  Lardner;  and  the  nov- 
elist Bulwer-Lytton,  who  is  made  to  announce 
himself  as  "  Sawedwadgeorgeearllittnbulwig. 
In  common  with  most  of  the  Eraser  set, 


Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Thackeray  was  never  tired  of  attacking 
this  author,  whose  dandiacal  pretensions 
aroused  his  ire.  He  made  a  savage  onslaught 
on  "Ernest  Maltravers"  in  "Our  Batch  of 
Novels  for  Christmas  1837;"  and  attacked 
with  much  bitterness  "The  Sea-Captain" 
in  "Epistles  to  the  Literati."  "Catherine" 
was  written  avowedly  to  counteract  the 
injurious  effect  of  the  "Newgate"  novels 
of  Lytton  and  Ainsworth.  Later,  Thackeray 
in  Punch  made  fun  of  the  many  Christian 
names  of  "The  Author  of  Pelham;"  and  in 
"The  Snobs  of  England"  made  playful  al- 
lusion to  him  as  "the  celebrated  author  .  .  . 
who  has  been  taking  leave  of  the  public 
any  time  these  ten  years  in  his  prefaces." 
He  never  met  Lytton,  and  on  the  one  occasion 
when  he  was  asked  to  dinner  for  that  purpose 
felt  himself  constrained  to  refuse  the  invita- 
tion as  he  was  about  to  publish  "George  de 
Barnwell,"  the  first  of  the  delightful  "Prize 
Novelists,"  though,  as  he  remarked  in  his 
letter,  the  parody  was  written  without 
malice.  Later  still  a  mutual  friend  of  the 
novelists  wrote  to  Lytton:  "I  saw  Thack- 


Thackeray's  Originals        143 

eray  at  Folkestone.  He  spoke  of  you  a  great 
deal,  and  said  he  would  have  given  worlds 
to  have  burnt  some  of  his  writings,  espe- 
cially some  lampoons  written  in  his  youth. 
He  much  wished  to  see  you  and  express  his 
contrition.  His  admiration  as  expressed  to 
me  was  boundless;  also  his  regret  to  have 
given  vent  to  his  youthful  jealousy,  etc.  I 
tell  you  all  this  because  I  feel  certain  he 
meant  me  to  repeat  it."  A  more  direct 
apology  was  made  in  the  Preface  to  Messrs. 
Appleton's  edition  of  his  minor  works  (New 
York,  1853),  of  which  he  sent  a  copy,  with 
a  cry  of  "Peccavi,"  to  the  author  of  "The 
Caxtons."  Yellowplush  was  innocent  of  a 
prototype,  though  when  he  reappeared  after 
many  years  as  "  Jeames  of  Buckley  Square" 
there  is  reason  to  suppose  he  was  drawn  from 
Mr.  Foster,  the  reporter  who  for  many  years 
was  the  contributor  of  fashionable  intelli- 
gence to  the  Morning  Post,  and  was  fre- 
quently caricatured  as  "Jenkins"  in  Punch. 
The  villain  of  "The  Yellowplush  Corre- 
spondence," Deuceace,  was  a  portrait.  Once, 
when  Thackeray  was  at  Spa,  he  pointed  out 


144    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

to  Sir  Theodore  Martin  a  tall,  shabbily 
dressed  person.  "That  was  the  original  of 
my  Deuceace,"  he  remarked.  "I  have  not 
seen  him  since  the  day  he  drove  me  down  in 
his  cabriolet  to  my  broker's  in  the  City,  where 
I  sold  out  my  patrimony  and  handed  it  over 
to  him."  "Poor  devil,"  he  added,  "my 
money  does  n't  seem  to  have  thriven  with 
him."  It  was  this  person  that  Thackeray 
had  in  his  mind  when  in  later  years  he  wrote 
in  the  "Roundabout  Papers"  of  "ogres." 
"Ogres  in  our  days  need  not  be  giants  at  all," 
he  said.  "  In  former  times,  and  in  children's 
books,  where  it  is  necessary  to  paint  your 
moral  in  such  large  letters  that  there  can  be 
no  mistake  about  it,  ogres  are  made  with 
that  enormous  mouth  and  ratelier  which  you 
know  of,  and  with  which  they  can  swallow 
down  a  baby,  almost  without  using  that  great 
knife  which  they  always  carry.  They  are 
too  cunning  nowadays.  They  go  about 
in  society,  slim,  small,  quietly  dressed,  and 
showing  no  especially  great  appetite.  In  my 
own  young  days  there  used  to  be  play  ogres 
—  men  who  would  devour  a  young  fellow 


AUTHOR    OF       THE    SIAMESE    TWINS 

From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 

See  page  151 


Thackeray's  Originals        145 

in  one  sitting,  and  leave  him  without  a  bit 
of  flesh  on  his  bones.  They  were  quiet, 
gentlemanlike-looking  people.  They  got  the 
young  fellow  into  their  cave.  Champagne, 
pate  de  fois  gras,  and  numberless  good  things 
were  handed  about;  and  then,  having  eaten, 
the  young  man  was  devoured  in  his  turn." 
On  the  whole  Thackeray  rarely  indulged  in 
personalities,  and  such  as  he  penned  after 
the  days  of  his  youth  appeared  in  the  pages 
of  Punch.  He  attacked  William  Harrison 
Ainsworth,  when  the  latter,  after  purchas- 
ing from  Colburn  The  New  Monthly  Maga- 
zine^ announced  he  had  secured  the  aid  of 
several  writers  "eminent  not  only  for  talent 
but  for  high  rank."  This  roused  the  Snobo- 
grapher,  who  spoke  his  mind  in  a  now  little- 
known  article  called  "Immense  Opportu- 
nity." No  sooner  was  this  written  than  there 
came  from  Ainsworth  to  Thackeray  an  invi- 
tation to  dinner,  whereupon  he  must  needs 
avow  the  authorship.  "There's  one  thing  I 
regret  very  much  too,  and  must  be  told  to 
you  now  in  making  a  clean  breast  of  it  —  is 
a  certain  paragraph  in  the  next  Punchy  relat- 


146    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

ing  to  a  certain  advertisement  about  contribu- 
tors, 'not  only  of  talent,  but  of  rank.9  This 
moved  my  wrath;  and  has  been  hardly 
handled  —  this  was  before  our  meeting  and 
explanation  —  I  always  must  think  it  a  very 
objectionable  advertisement  —  but  should  n't 
have  lifted  my  hand  to  smite  my  friend,  had 
explanation  come  sooner,  so  that  now  you 
must  be  called  upon  to  play  the  part  of  for- 
giver,  in  which  I  am  sure  you  will  shine." 
It  may  be  remarked  en  passant  that  Thack- 
eray, who  had  been  a  contributor  to  The 
New  Monthly  Magazine  under  Colburn,  did 
not  again  appear  in  its  pages  after  the 
change  of  proprietors;  but  his  acquaintance 
with  Ainsworth  continued  for  many  years. 
Thackeray's  first  contribution  to  Punch  was 
' '  The  Legend  of  Jawbrahim-Heraudee. ' '  This 
was  a  skit  on  John  Abraham  Heraud,  a  writer 
of  poems  —  "The  Descent  into  Hell,"  "The 
Judgment  of  the  Flood,"  etc.  —  whose  works 
are  quite  unknown  to  the  present  generation 
of  readers.  In  the  "Legend"  the  author 
contrived  to  introduce  under  orientalised 
forms  the  names  of  several  of  his  contempora- 


Thackeray's  Originals        H7 

ries :  Bulwer-Khan  and  his  "  Siamee-Geminee" 
is,  of  course,  Bulwer's  "Siamese-Twins;" 
Thomas  the  Moor  is  Thomas  Moore;  and 
Mollah  Moongoomeree,  Robert  Montgom- 
ery, and  his  poem  "Eblis"  is  the  now- 
forgotten  "Satan."  Thackeray  had  already 
reviewed  another  poem  by  the  same  writer, 
"Woman:  The  Angel  of  Life,"  in  an  article 
that  concluded  with  the  last  ten  lines  of  the 
poem  printed  backwards.  Ulphabeet-Bailee 
in  the  "Legend"  is  F.  W.  N.  Bailey,  who 
must  not  be  confused  with  the  better-known 
Haynes  Bayly,  the  author  of  the  once  pop- 
ular English  song  "  We  met  —  't  was  in  a 
crowd."  "I'd  be  a  Butterfly,"  an  earlier 
success,  had  the  distinction  of  being  parodied 
by  Thackeray,  when  an  undergraduate  at 
Cambridge  University.  F.  W.  N.  Bailey 
was  the  originator  of  "The  National  Omni- 
bus," the  "first  of  the  cheaper  publications," 
as  he  styled  it.  Subsequently  he  founded 
the  National  Standard  of  Literature,  Science, 
Music,  Theatricals,  and  the  Fine  Arts,  which 
grandiloquently  named  periodical  he  con- 
trived to  sell  to  Thackeray.  The  latter  an- 


148    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

nounced  the  change  in  the  columns  of  the 
paper:  "We  have  got  free  of  the  Old  Bailey, 
and  changed  the  Governor."  The  National 
Standard  never  had  a  reasonable  chance  of 
success,  and  what  Thackeray  thought  of  the 
transaction  in  after  days  those  who  will  may 
read  in  "Lovel  the  Widower"  in  the  passage 
in  which  Mr.  Batchelor  tells  the  story  of  his 
newspaper  venture.  In  his  paper  Thackeray 
lampooned  and  caricatured  Louis  Philippe, 
N.  M.  Rothschild,  Crockford,  Braham,  and 
Alfred  Bunn.  Crockford,  of  course,  was  the 
proprietor  of  the  famous  London  gaming 
house.  Braham  was  the  well-known  tenor, 
of  whom  Sir  Walter  Scott  remarked:  "a 
beast  of  an  actor,  though  an  angel  of  a  singer." 
He  erected  the  Colloseum  in  Regent's  Park, 
and,  it  is  said,  lost  fifty  thousand  pounds  in 
that  speculation.  Undismayed,  however, 
he  spent  another  thirty  thousand  pounds  on 
the  St.  James's  Theatre,  erected  on  the  site 
of  Nerot's  Hotel,  a  resort  much  frequented  by 
Anglo-Indians,  and  famous  as  the  place  to 
which,  upon  their  return  to  England,  re- 
paired Colonel  Newcome,  C.  B.,  and  James 


THE    AUTHOR   OF       SATAN 
From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 


Thackeray's  Originals        149 

Binnie,  his  civilian  colleague  in  the  Honour- 
able East  India  Company's  Service.  Alfred 
Bunn  was  a  theatrical  manager  with  literary 
tastes  which  were  later  to  provoke  the 
attacks  of  Mr.  Punch's  young  men.  As  a 
matter  of  fact  the  attentions  of  this  band  of 
talented  writers  to  "the  Poet  Bunn"  irri- 
tated their  victim  to  such  a  degree  that  he 
called  to  his  assistance  the  powerful  aid  of 
George  Augustus  Sala  and  with  him  con- 
cocted "A  Word  with  Punch,"  in  which  a 
violent  attack  was  made  upon  his  principal 
assailants,  Mark  Lemon,  Douglas  Jerrold, 
and,  perhaps  the  most  virulent  of  them  all, 
Gilbert  Abbott  a  Beckett  (Thackeray's  "a, 
Beckett  the  Beak").  Thackeray,  however, 
had  no  part  in  the  attacks  on  Bunn  in  Punch, 
but  he  had  earlier  caricatured  him  in  "Flore 
et  Zephyr,"  and  later  introduced  him  as 
"Dolphin"  in  "Pendennis." 

A  favorite  butt  of  Thackeray  in  Punch  was 
James  Grant,  who  must  not  be  confused  with 
James  Grant,  the  novelist,  nor  with  James 
Augustus  Grant,  the  author  of  "A  Walk  Across 
Africa,"  and  other  books  of  travel.  The 


i5°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

James  Grant  in  question  was  the  editor  of 
the  Morning  Advertiser,  and  author  of  "The 
Great  Metropolis"  and  "Paris  and  its  Peo- 
ple," both  of  which  books  were  reviewed  by 
Thackeray  in  Eraser's  Magazine.  "The 
Snobs  of  England  "contains  many  allusions  to 
the  author's  contemporaries.  Benjamin  Dis- 
raeli is  introduced  as  "Ben  de  Minories;" 
Theodore  Hook  as  "Theodore  Crook;"  Mrs. 
Gore,  the  author  of  "Mothers  and  Daugh- 
ters" and  other  novels,  as  "Mrs.  Cruor;" 
Mrs.  Trollope,  the  authoress  of  "The  Vicar 
of  Wrexhill "  and  other  works  of  fiction, 
and  the  mother  of  Anthony,  as  "Mrs. 
Wallop;"  Thomas  Babington  Macaulay  as 
"Tom  Macau;"  and  Thomas  Slingsby  Dun- 
combe,  member  of  Parliament  for  Finsbury, 
"Thomas  of  Finsbury."  "The  Duke  of 
Coeurdelion"  has,  as  prototype,  the  Duke  of 
Buckingham,  an  aristocrat  of  the  old  school, 
who,  at  the  eleventh  hour,  forcibly  prevented 
the  marriage  of  his  twenty-six-year-old 
daughter  with  a  well-to-do,  well-born  gentle- 
man, against  whom  it  could  only  be  urged 
that  he  was  not  a  nobleman.  Mr.  Stephen 


Thackeray's  Originals        151 

Price  appeared  as  Captain  Shindy,  and  a 
woodblock  presenting  a  portrait  of  Mr. 
Wyndham  Smith  was  inserted  among  the 
sporting  snobs.  The  originals  of  "Punch's 
Prize  Novelists,"  now  better  known  as  "Nov- 
els by  Eminent  Hands,"  are  more  or  less 
obvious.  "E.  L.  B.  L.  B.  B.  L.  L.  B.  B.  B. 
L.  L.  L."  is  Bulwer  Lytton;  "B.  de  Shrews- 
bury" is  Benjamin  Disraeli,  who  at  that 
time  was  member  of  Parliament  for  Shrews- 
bury; "The  Authoress  of  'Dukes  and  De- 
jeuners,' 'Hearts  and  Diamonds/  'Mar- 
chionesses and  Milliners,'  etc.,  etc.,"  is  Mrs. 
Gore;  "  G.  P.  R.  Jeames"  is,  of  course, 
George  Payne  Rainsford  James,  the  author 
of  "Richelieu"  and  many  other  novels,  all 
bearing  a  strong  family  likeness;  "Harry 
Rollicker"  is  Charles  Lever,  and  "The 
Author  of  'The  Last  of  the  Mulligans,' 
'Pilot,'  etc.,"  is,  of  course,  Fenimore 
Cooper. 

Several  of  the  characters  in  "Vanity  Fair" 
had  prototypes  in  real  life.  It  is  commonly 
supposed  that  the  inimitable  Becky  had  an 
original,  though  her  name  is  known  to  few. 


i52    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Lady  Ritchie  saw  her  once.  She  drove  to 
Young  Street  to  see  Thackeray,  a  most  charm- 
ing, dazzling  little  lady,  dressed  in  black,  who 
greeted  the  novelist  with  great  affection  and 
brilliancy,  and  on  her  departure  presented 
him  with  a  bunch  of  violets.  Thackeray 
always  parried  with  a  laugh  all  questions 
concerning  this  prototype.  However,  a  lady 
who  knew  him  intimately  was  not  so  reti- 
cent. She  said  the  character  of  Becky  was 
an  invention,  but  it  had  been  suggested  to 
him  by  a  governess  who  lived  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Kensington  Square,  and  was 
the  companion  of  a  very  rich  and  very  selfish 
old  woman.  The  governess,  strange  to  say, 
followed  in  the  footsteps  of  Becky.  Some 
years  after  the  publication  of  "Vanity  Fair" 
she  ran  away  with  the  nephew  of  the  lady 
with  whom  she  was  living,  and  for  a  while 
made  a  sensation  in  society  circles,  quite  in 
Mrs.  Rawdon  Crawley's  style  and  entirely 
by  Mrs.  Rawdon  Crawley's  methods.  This 
living  handsomely  on  nothing  a  year  re- 
sulted in  the  usual  way;  and  in  the  end  the 
ex-governess  fled  the  country,  and  was  to 


AUTHOR   OF       VIVIAN   GREY 
From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 


Thackeray's  Originals        153 

be  seen  on  the  Continent  flitting  from  gamb- 
ling-place to  gambling-place. 

Charles  Kingsley  used  to  tell  a  good  story 
of  a  lady  who  confided  to  Thackeray  that 
she  liked  "Vanity  Fair"  exceedingly.  "The 
characters  are  so  natural,"  she  said,  "all  but 
the  baronet,  Sir  Pitt  Crawley,  and  surely  he 
is  overdrawn;  it  is  impossible  to  find  such 
coarseness  in  his  rank  of  life."  "That 
character,"  the  author  smilingly  replied,  "is 
almost  the  only  exact  portrait  in  the  book." 
The  identity  of  the  prototype  was  not 
revealed  for  many  years;  but  it  has  recently 
been  asserted  that  the  character  was  sketched 
from  a  former  Lord  Rolle.  "  Sir  Pitt's  letters 
to  Becky  were  very  badly  spelt  and  written," 
remarks  the  gentleman  who  puts  forward 
this  theory,  "and  I  may  say  that  I  have  in 
my  possession  a  letter  written  by  Sir  Robert 
Brownrigg  to  His  Royal  Highness  the  Duke 
of  York  when  Commander-in-Chief  of  the 
British  army,  complaining  that  a  report 
received  from  Lord  Rolle,  as  Lord-Lieutenant 
of  his  county,  was  so  badly  written  that  he 
could  not  decipher  it." 


154    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

"You  know  that  you  are  only  a  piece  of 
Amelia,"  Thackeray  wrote  to  Mrs.  Brook- 
field.  "My  Mother  is  another  half;  my 
poor  little  Wife  —  y  est  pour  beaucoup." 
Mrs.  Brookfield  was  a  daughter  of  Sir 
Charles  Elton,  who  lived  at  Clevedon  Court, 
Somerset  —  which  house  figures  in  "Es- 
mond" as  Castlewood.  Her  husband,  the 
Rev.  W.  H.  Brookfield,  was  one  of  Thack- 
eray's intimates,  and  their  friendship  dated 
back  to  their  university  days.  Thackeray 
paid  tribute  to  Brookfield's  fine  qualities  by 
drawing  him  as  Frank  Whites tock  in  "The 
Curate's  Walk;"  and  when  asked  towards 
the  end  of  his  life  which  of  his  friends  he 
loved  the  best,  replied:  "Why,  dear  old  Fitz, 
of  course;  and  Brookfield."  Fitz  was  Edward 
FitzGerald,  the  translator  of  "Omar."  An- 
other old  college  chum,  John  (afterwards 
Archdeacon)  Allen,  was  presented  as  Dobbin, 
wTho  at  the  outset  obviously  was  to  be  the 
butt  of  the  story;  but  in  the  end  the  char- 
acter, mastering  its  creator,  developed  into 
the  fine,  noble  gentleman  we  know. 

Although  all  are  agreed  that  the  original 


Thackeray's  Originals        155 

of  the  Marquis  of  Steyne  was  a  Marquis  of 
Hertford,  the  question  is,  which  Lord  Hert- 
ford is  entitled  to  the  invidious  distinction? 
The  first  marquis  lived  too  early,  and  for 
many  reasons  the  fourth  may  be  put  out  of 
court.  Mr.  George  Somes  Layard  plumps 
for  the  third  marquis;  Mr.  S.  M.  Ellis  is 
all  for  the  second,  and  writes  as  follows  to 
the  present  writer:  "May  I  give  my  reasons 
for  thinking  Thackeray  had  Francis,  second 
Marquis  of  Hertford,  in  his  mind  when 
writing  his  description  of  Lord  Steyne  and 
Gaunt  House?  The  third  marquis  was  the 
son  of  the  second,  and  both  were  intimate 
friends  of  George  IV.,  who  in  point  of  age 
came  just  between  the  two:  second  marquis 
born  1743;  George  IV.  born  1762;  third 
marquis  born  1777.  Now,  the  second  marquis 
did  not  die  until  1822,  which  would  cover 
the  *  Vanity  Fair'  period.  Again,  if  chro- 
nology may  be  relied  upon,  there  is  much 
evidence  in  the  book  itself  that  points  to 
the  second  marquis  being  Steyne.  For 
instance,  in  the  chapter  entitled  'Gaunt 
House,'  where  the  'fast'  history  of  the 


156    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

house  is  given,  Thackeray  says:  'The  Prince 
and  Perdita  have  been  in  and  out  of  that 
door,'  etc.  Now  the  Prince  of  Wales  finally 
separated  from  Mrs.  Robinson  in  1783,  when 
the  future  third  marquis  was  only  six  years 
old.  In  the  same  paragraph  Thackeray 
mentions  Egalite,  Duke  of  Orleans,  as  a 
friend  of  Steyne's.  Egalite  was  executed  in 
1793;  and  then,  so  far  as  dates  are  concerned, 
the  Gaunt  House  period  is  in  the  twenties, 
when  the  third  marquis  would  have  been 
forty  years  old  or  so,  whereas  Lord  Steyne 
is  described  as  an  old  man  and  a  grand- 
father. Of  course  these  dates  may  prove 
nothing  in  view  of  an  author's  license  to 
transpose  and  alter  such  things  to  suit  his 
purpose.  My  strongest  point  is  that  the 
second  marquis  was  a  notorious  roue,  whereas 
his  son,  the  third  marquis,  was  nothing  out 
of  the  way  in  this  attribute  —  for  a  Regency 
buck.  But  his  ancient  father  was  a  byword 
even  at  this  period.  He  was  called  'The 
Hoary  Old  Sinner,'  and  is  constantly  men- 
tioned in  the  Examiner,  the  Courier,  and  the 
other  papers  which  supported  the  cause  of 


THE    REV.    WILLIAM    HENRY    BROOKFIELD 

From  the  painting  by  Samuel  Laurence 

By  permission  of  Sir  Isaac  Pitman  &  Sons,  Ltd.     See  page  154 


Thackeray's  Originals        157 

Queen  Caroline  against  the  king  and  his 
friends.  One  of  the  most  notorious  acts 
with  which  the  second  Lord  Hertford  excited 
society  was  the  seduction  of  Mrs.  Massey. 
This  is  alluded  to  by  Thomas  Moore  in  his 
satirical  series  of  poems,  'The  Twopenny 
Post-Bag,'  where  he  calls  the  marquis  'the 
hoary  old  sinner.5  Of  course  Lord  Hert- 
ford's wife  was  the  mistress  of  George  IV., 
and  her  husband  and  son  were  very  com- 
plaisant over  the  matter.  There  is  one  other 
point:  Thackeray  says  Lord  Steyne  was 
'Lord  of  the  Powder  Closet;'  the  second 
Marquis  of  Hertford  was  Lord  Chamberlain 
of  the  king's  household,  but  his  son  was 
not." 

Mr.  Layard's  opinion,  however,  is  stated 
very  plainly:  "No  one  who  has  taken  the 
trouble  to  investigate  the  lives  of  the  three 
marquises  can  hesitate  for  a  moment  in 
identifying  the  Marquis  of  Steyne  with  the 
third  Marquis  of  Hertford."  And  he  dwells 
on  the  resemblance  between  Sir  Thomas 
Lawrence's  portrait  of  the  third  marquis 
and  the  "suppressed"  woodcut  of  Lord 


158    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Steyne  contained  in  the  first  issue  of  "Vanity 
Fair."  Both  he  and  Mr.  Charles  Whibley, 
the  well-known  critic  and  the  author  of  a 
recent  interesting  monograph  on  Thackeray, 
assume  that  Lord  Steyne  of  "Vanity  Fair" 
and  Lord  Monmouth  of  "Coningsby"  are 
drawn  from  the  same  peer.  But  is  not  this 
assumption  too  readily  made?  It  is  generally 
accepted  that  Lord  Monmouth  is  the  third 
Marquis  of  Hertford.  Yet,  though  there 
are  so  many  differences  between  Lord  Mon- 
mouth and  Lord  Steyne,  the  critics  are 
content  to  state  that  these  differences  arise 
naturally  from  the  diverse  treatment  of  the 
two  authors.  For  instance,  Mr.  Whibley 
remarks  that  Thackeray  gives  us  a  brute, 
Disraeli  a  man.  Yet  this,  to  a  certain  extent, 
is  explained  if  Thackeray  drew  from  the 
second  and  Disraeli  from  the  third  marquis. 
But  surely  there  is  a  still  simpler  explana- 
tion. Disraeli  presented  in  "Coningsby"  a 
roman-a-clef,  a  political  study  of  a  period, 
and  naturally  he  was  at  pains  to  give  an 
accurate  portrait  of  his  model.  With  Thack- 
eray the  case  was  very  different.  He  was 


Thackeray's  Originals        159 

writing  a  work  of  fiction  and  nothing  more. 
He  had  heard  stories  of  the  Marquises  of 
Hertford,  and  when  he  created  a  profligate 
peer,  what  more  likely  than  that  he  should 
tack  these  stories  on  to  his  creation?  Or, 
being  in  possession  of  these  stories,  he  drew 
a  purely  fancy  portrait  of  Lord  Hertford, 
since  there  was  no  reason  why  he  should 
trouble  to  study  the  character  of  the  noble- 
man in  question.  With  these  suggestions  we 
may  take  leave  of  the  "richly-dressed  figure 
of  the  Wicked  Nobleman,  on  which  no 
expense  has  been  spared,  and  which  Old 
Nick  will  fetch  away  at  the  end." 

There  seems  no  doubt,  however,  that  the 
Marquis  of  Steyne's  managing  man,  Wenham, 
was  drawn  from  the  managing  man  of  the 
third  Marquis  of  Hertford,  John  Wilson 
Croker,  who  of  course  stood  for  Rigby  in 
"Coningsby."  Now  Rigby  is  Croker  to  the 
life,  as  seen  by  the  prejudiced.  In  some  such 
fashion  would  Macaulay  have  depicted  him. 
Unfair  as  is  the  portraiture,  this  is  not  the 
place  to  rehabilitate  the  much-abused,  well- 
hated  politician.  Wenham,  however,  could 


160    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

have  been  no  more  flattering  to  the  original, 
for  he  is  depicted  as  a  mean,  despicable 
creature.  Thackeray  had  coals  of  fire  poured 
upon  him  a  little  later  when  he  was  proposed 
at  the  Athenaeum  Club  as  a  candidate  to 
be  elected  without  ballot  as  a  person  of 
distinguished  eminence  in  literature,  for  then 
Croker  supported  him.  It  must  have  been 
strange  indeed,  as  Milman  remarked,  to 
see  Macaulay  and  Croker  row  together  in 
the  same  boat.  A  good  story  is  told  of 
Croker  and  the  author  of  "Vanity  Fair." 
When  Croker  was  dead  a  mutual  friend  told 
Thackeray  how  Croker  had  begged  his  wife 
to  seek  out  some  homeless  boys  to  stay  with 
them  from  Saturday  till  Monday.  "They 
will  destroy  your  flower-beds  and  upset  my 
inkstands,  but  we  can  help  them  more  than 
they  can  hurt  us."  Thackeray  choked,  and 
went  to  see  Mrs.  Croker,  and  assured  her 
he  would  never  again  speak  or  think  ill 
of  her  husband. 

"Pendennis,"  so  the  story  goes,  was  based 
upon  a  true  anecdote  of  Brighton  life,  told 
to  Thackeray  by  the  Misses  Smith  (daughters 


O     ~ 

05    SF 


§  2 


Thackeray's  Originals        161 

of  Horace,  part  author  of  "Rejected  Ad- 
dresses") when  he  told  them  he  had  to  pro- 
duce the  first  number  of  a  novel  in  a  few 
days,  and  had  no  idea  how  to  start  one.  In 
gratitude  he  christened  his  heroine  Laura  after 
a  younger  sister,  Mrs.  Round.  When  "Pen- 
dennis" was  finished  the  original  Laura  was 
very  angry,  or  at  least  pretended  to  be  very 
angry.  "I'll  never  speak  to  you  again,  Mr. 
Thackeray,"  she  declared.  "You  know  I 
meant  to  marry  Bluebeard"  —  Lady  Rock- 
minster's  name  for  George  Warrington.  It 
may,  perhaps,  be  remarked  that  it  is  rather 
curious  that  Thackeray  should  have  chris- 
tened his  heroine  Laura  Bell,  for  that  was 
the  name  of  a  demi-mondaine  of  the  day,  so 
notorious  that  it  is  inconceivable  that  such 
a  man  about  town  as  the  author  should  not 
have  heard  of  her.  Young  Pendennis  was  a 
great  favourite  with  the  author,  which  is 
not  unnatural  when  it  is  remembered  that 
the  character  was  in  great  part  drawn  from 
himself.  "Being  entirely  occupied  with  my 
two  new  friends,  Mrs.  Pendennis  and  her 
son,  Arthur  Pendennis,"  Thackeray  wrote 


1 62    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

from  Brighton  to  the  Brookfields,  "I  got  up 
very  early  again  this  morning,  and  was  with 
them  for  more  than  two  hours  before  break- 
fast. He  is  a  very  good-natured,  generous 
young  fellow,  and  I  begin  to  like  him  con- 
siderably. I  wonder  if  he  is  interesting  to 
me  from  selfish  reasons,  and  because  I  fancy 
we  resemble  each  other  in  many  parts." 
Pendennis  followed  closely  in  the  footsteps 
of  his  creator.  Both  went  to  the  Grey 
Friars'  School  —  the  Charterhouse  of  reality 
—  where  Dr.  Swishtail,  the  head-master,  was 
as  severe  with  the  eponymous  hero  as  Dr. 
Russell  with  the  novelist  when  a  lad.  Pen- 
dennis lived  for  a  while  at  Ottery  St.  Mary, 
in  a  house  —  Fairoaks  —  that  corresponds  to 
Larkbeare,  the  residence  of  Thackeray's 
mother  and  stepfather.  Pendennis  sent  poems 
to  the  County  Chronicle  and  Chatteris  Cham- 
pion, Thackeray  to  the  Western  Luminary. 
Pendennis  made  friends  with  the  vicar, 
Doctor  Portman,  who  is  no  doubt  drawn 
from  Thackeray's  friend,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Cor- 
nish. Pendennis  went  to  the  Chatteris 
Theatre,  as  we  may  be  sure  Thackeray,  al- 


Thackeray's  Originals        163 

ways  a  lover  of  the  theatre,  visited  the  Exeter 
Theatre.  It  is  not  known  that  Thackeray 
fell  in  love  with  an  actress  in  the  Exeter 
Theatre  stock  company,  but  so  autobio- 
graphical, apparently,  is  this  part  of  the 
novel  that  Mr.  Herman  Merrivale  is  inclined 
to  think  the  fiction  is  based  upon  fact.  Miss 
Emily  Costigan,  better  known  under  her 
theatrical  name  of  Fotheringay,  was  freely 
adapted  from  Miss  O'Neill,  who  became 
Lady  Becher.  We  have  it  on  Thackeray's 
authority  that  her  father,  Captain  "Jack" 
Costigan,  was  a  fancy  portrait.  Thackeray, 
however,  in  later  life,  met  some  one  who 
might  have  sat  for  the  immortal  captain. 

"In  the  novel  of  'Pendennis,'  written  ten 
years  ago,"  he  mentioned  in"De  Finibus," 
"there  is  an  account  of  a  certain  Costigan 
whom  I  had  invented  (as  I  suppose  authors 
invent  their  personages  out  of  scraps,  heel- 
taps, odds  and  ends  of  characters).  I  was 
smoking  in  a  tavern  parlour  one  night,  and 
this  Costigan  came  into  the  room  alone  — 
the  very  man  —  the  most  remarkable  resem- 
blance of  the  printed  sketches  of  the  man, 


164    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

of  the  rude  drawings  in  which  I  had  depicted 
him.  He  had  the  same  little  coat,  the  same 
battered  hat,  cocked  on  one  eye,  the  same 
twinkle  in  that  eye.  'Sir,'  said  I,  knowing 
him  to  be  an  old  friend  whom  I  had  met  in 
unknown  regions;  'Sir,'  I  said,  'may  I  offer 
you  a  glass  of  brandy  and  water?'  'Bedad, 
ye  may?  says  he;  'and  I  'II  sing  ye  a  song  tu.' 
Of  course  he  spoke  with  an  Irish  accent. 
Of  course  he  had  been  in  the  Army.  In  ten 
minutes  he  pulled  out  an  Army  Agent's 
account,  whereon  his  name  was  written.  A 
few  months  after,  we  read  of  him  in  a  police 
court." 

Pendennis  went  later  to  St.  Boniface's 
College,  Oxbridge,  as  Thackeray  had  been 
to  Trinity  College,  Cambridge,  where  he 
was  a  more  notorious  character  than  his 
prototype.  Crump  of  Boniface  was  Whe- 
well,  Master  of  Trinity.  Subsequently  Pen- 
dennis came  to  town  to  study  law,  which, 
however,  he  soon  abandoned  for  journalism, 
as  Thackeray  had  done  before  him.  Like 
Thackeray,  too,  he  lived  in  the  Temple, 
shared  chambers  with  George  Warrington, 


THE   DOCTOR 
From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 


Thackeray's  Originals        165 

as  Thackeray  had  lived  with  Tom  Taylor 
or  another. 

"You  will  find  much  to  remind  you  of 
old  talk  and  faces  —  of  William  John  O'Con- 
nell,  Jack  Sheehan,  and  Andrew  Arcedechne," 
Thackeray  wrote  to  George  Moreland  Craw- 
ford, who  had  nursed  him  through  the  ill- 
ness that  nearly  brought  "Pendennis"  to 
a  premature  conclusion.  "There  is  some- 
thing of  you  in  Warrington,  but  he  is  not 
fit  to  hold  a  candle  to  you,  for,  taking  you 
all  round,  you  are  the  most  genuine  fellow 
that  ever  strayed  from  a  better  world  into 
this.  You  don't  smoke,  and  he  is  a  con- 
firmed smoker  of  tobacco.  Bordeaux  and 
port  were  your  favourites  at  the  Deanery  l 
and  the  Garrick,  and  Warrington  is  always 
guzzling  beer.  But  he  has  your  honesty, 
and,  like  you,  could  not  posture  if  he  tried. 
You  have  a  strong  affinity  for  the  Irish. 
May  you  some  day  find  an  Irish  girl  to  lead 
you  to  matrimony !  There  's  no  such  good 

1  The  "Deanery"  was  an  old-fashioned  public-house  near  St. 
Paul's,  so  referred  to  by  a  certain  set  because  it  was  often  graced 
by  the  presence  of  Barham,  of  "Ingoldsby  Legends"  fame,  a  canon 
of  the  neighbouring  cathedral. 


1 66    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

wife  as  a  daughter  of  Erin."  Lady  Ritchie 
thinks  there  is  something  of  her  father  in 
Warrington,  and  perhaps  a  likeness  to  Ed- 
ward FitzGerald;  and  it  has  been  said  that 
the  character  was  based  partly  on  George 
Stoven  Venables,  whose  name  figures  in 
Thackeray's  personal  history  as  the  smasher 
of  the  latter's  nose  in  a  fight  at  the  Charter- 
house. The  noblemen  on  the  staff  of  the 
paper  "written  by  gentlemen  for  gentlemen " 
were  Lords  William  and  Henry  Lennox 
and  a  brother  of  the  Duke  of  St.  Albans, 
of  whom  Sheehan  said  :  "  His  name  Beauclerc 
is  a  misnomer,  for  he  is  always  in  a  fog  and 
never  clear  about  anything."  Most  im- 
portant of  all  men  of  letters  in  "Penden- 
nis"  is  Captain  Shandon,  the  prototype  of 
which  character  is  Doctor  William  Maginn. 
Thackeray's  acquaintance  with  Maginn 
dates  from  the  days  when  the  former  was 
studying  painting  in  Paris.  The  story  that 
Thackeray  gave  Maginn  five  hundred  pounds 
is  probably  apocryphal.  It  could  not  have 
happened  after  the  failure  of  the  Constitu- 
tional newspaper,  for  that  carried  with  it 


Thackeray's  Originals        167 

all  that  remained  of  the  young  man's  pat- 
rimony. It  is  said,  however,  that  in  Paris 
Thackeray  and  Maginn  discussed  the  scheme 
of  a  magazine,  which  the  former  was  to 
capitalize;  and  this  may  have  started  the 
rumour.  Anyhow,  the  two  men  were  close 
friends,  and  it  was  no  doubt  the  Doctor 
who  introduced  Thackeray  as  a  contributor 
to  Eraser's  Magazine,  of  which  periodical 
he  was  the  editor  and,  perhaps,  the  most 
valuable  contributor.  "  I  have  carried  money, 
and  from  a  noble  brother  man-of-letters,  to 
some  one  not  unlike  Shandon  in  prison,  and 
have  watched  the  beautiful  devotion  of 
his  wife  in  that  place,"  Thackeray  has 
written.  But  Maginn  was  a  greater  than 
Shandon  in  whom  only  one  side  of  him  — 
and  that  the  worse  side  —  is  shown.  Maginn 
was  probably  all  that  is  depicted  in  Shan- 
don, but  he  was  also  much  more.  He  may 
have  written  —  indeed,  he  did  write  — 
articles  that  wrere  models  of  virulent  abuse; 
but  he  was  a  parodist  of  no  mean  merit, 
and  his  Shakespearian  essays  and  his  Latin 
versions  of  "Chevy  Chase"  and  other 


1 68    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

ballads    extorted     praise     even    from    his 
enemies. 

Foker  differs  from  Thackeray's  other  char- 
acters because  it  was  an  accurate  portrait 
of  a  member  of  the  Garrick  Club.  It  was 
most  probably  this  breach  of  etiquette  that 
was  the  cause  of  Thackeray  being  black- 
balled at  the  Traveller's  Club,  where  the 
ballot  is  by  members  and  not  by  the  com- 
mittee, the  members  fearing  lest  any  one 
of  them  who  had  marked  peculiarities  of 
manner  might  be  introduced  in  some  later 
novel.  The  member  of  the  Garrick  who 
sat  for  Foker  was  Andrew  Arcedechne,  who, 
as  says  the  Hon.  Henry  J.  Coke  in  his 
"Tracks  of  a  Rolling-stone,"  was  so  like 
a  seal  that  he  was  often  called  "Phoca" 
by  his  intimates.  Arcedechne  was  small 
in  stature  and  eccentric  in  his  mode  of 
dressing;  he  drove  stage-coaches  as  an 
amateur,  loved  cock-fighting  and  the  prize- 
ring  and  had  a  large  estate  in  Norfolk. 
It  is  pleasant  to  record,  that  no  quarrel 
between  him  and  his  lampooner  was  oc- 
casioned by  the  publication  of  "Penden- 


Thackeray's  Originals        169 

nis."  Thackeray  always  declared  his  model 
to  be  "not  half  a  bad  fellow,"  and  Arce- 
dechne  remarked:  "Awfully  good  chap  old 
Thack  was.  Lor'  bless  you,  he  did  n'  mind 
me  a  bit.  But  I  did  take  it  out  of  him 
now  and  again.  Never  gave  him  time 
for  a  repartee."  The  victim  did,  indeed, 
sometimes  contrive  to  score  off  his  per- 
secutor and  once  or  twice  with  marked 
success,  and  Thackeray  became  uncomfort- 
able in  his  presence.  When  the  great  man 
was  telling  a  story  in  the  smoking  room 
at  the  Garrick,  and  Arcedechne  entered, 
the  narrator  would  hesitate,  stammer,  and 
break  down;  whereupon  the  other,  with 
a  bland  smile  would  say,  "Proceed,  sweet 
warbler,  thy  story  interesteth  me!"  —  which 
remark  invariably  reduced  Thackeray  to 
silence,  and  often  to  flight.  Or  Arcedechne 
would  be  in  the  room  and  when  the  novelist 
entered  would  greet  him  affably,  "Ha!  Mr. 
Thackeray!  literary  cove!  Glad  to  see  you, 
sir.  How's  Major  Dobbing?"  and  would 
summon  a  waiter  and  tell  him  to  "Give 
this  gent  a  glass  of  Toker's  Own,'  and 


i7°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

score  it  up  to  yours  truly!"  Once  Arce- 
dechne  scored  a  triumph  over  Thackeray 
that  has  become  historic.  He  went  to  the 
first  lecture  on  the  "English  Humourists 
of  the  Eighteenth  Century,"  and  afterwards 
Thackeray  asked  him  how  he  had  liked  it. 
"Very  good,  Thack,  my  boy,  very  good. 
But  wants  a  pianner!" 

Pendennis  naturally  went  to  Thackeray's 
haunts,  "The  Cave  of  Harmony"  and  "The 
Back  Kitchen,"  better  known  as  "  Evans's 
Coffee-house,"  and  "The  Cider  Cellars,"  and 
at  the  latter  heard  Mr.  Nadab,  the  improvisa- 
tore,  who  in  life  was  known  as  Charles  Sloman, 
again  introduced  into  "The  Newcomes"  as 
"the  great  little  Jew  at  the  Coal  Hole."  He 
was  intimate  with  Thackeray's  friends  and 
acquaintances,  and  in  his  illness  was  at- 
tended by  Thackeray's  doctor,  Elliotson  — 
to  whom  "Pendennis"  is  dedicated  —  who 
figures  in  the  story  as  Doctor  Goodenough. 
Major  Pendennis's  noble  friend,  Lord  Col- 
chicum,  was  a  sketch  from  life  of  the  very 
naughty  Lord  Lonsdale  of  the  day;  and 
there  was,  says  Thackeray,  writing  to  Amer- 


x^Cfc-*»-'^ — ^^"^X 


AUTHOR  or  "SAYINGS  AND  DOINGS 

From  a  drawing  by  Daniel  Maclise 


Thackeray's  Originals        171 

lean  intimates,  "a  friend  of  mine  who  is 
coming  out  to  New  York,  and  to  whom  I 
shall  give  a  letter  —  a  queer  fellow,  the  orig- 
inal of  the  Chevalier  Strong." 

Many  of  the  journalists  and  men  of 
letters  in  the  book  had  their  prototypes. 
Bungay  is  a  caricature  of  Colburn  the  pub- 
lisher, and  the  proprietor  of  the  New  Monthly 
Magazine,  to  which  at  one  time  Thackeray 
was  a  contributor.  Colburn  is  eminent 
among  the  publishers  who  have  missed 
opportunities,  for  he  declined  to  commission 
Thackeray  to  finish  a  novel  of  which  he 
was  shown  the  earlier  chapters,  and  which 
is  known  to  us  as  "Vanity  Fair."  It  is 
said  that  the  late  W.  H.  Wills,  the  business 
manager  of  Household  Words,  suggested  to 
Thackeray  the  publisher's  reader  who,  "from 
having  broken  out  in  the  world  as  a  poet 
of  a  tragic  and  suicidal  cast,  had  now  sub- 
sided into  one  of  Mr.  Bungay's  back  shops, 
as  reader  for  that  gentleman."  A  visitor 
at  one  of  Bungay's  dinner-parties,  Captain 
Sumph,  with  his  silly  stories  of  Byron,  was 
sketched  from  Captain  Medwin,  the  author 


*72    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

of  a  volume  of  dull  "Conversations  with 
Byron."  Mr.  Wagg,  a  henchman  of  Lord 
Steyne,  was  drawn  from  Theodore  Hook, 
the  author  of  some  now  almost  forgotten 
novels,  and,  more  particularly,  of  the  Rams- 
bottom  Letters  in  the  John  Bull  newspaper. 
Those  letters  were  parodied  by  Thackeray 
in  the  Snob  and  the  Gownsman,  weekly 
periodicals  written  and  published  by  Cam- 
bridge undergraduates  in  1829  and  1830. 
Thackeray  actually  had  the  audacity  to 
put  into  Wagg's  mouth  one  of  Hook's  own 
jokes.  Wagg  is  made  to  ask  Mrs.  Bungay, 
"Does  your  cook  say  he's  a  Frenchman?" 
and  to  reply,  when  that  lady  expresses  her 
ignorance,  "Because  if  he  does,  he 's  a- 
quizzin'  yer  (cuisinier)"  Mr.  Charles  Whib- 
ley  informs  us  that  "Archer,  the  quidnunc, 
whose  advice  is  always  wanted  at  the  palace, 
and  whose  taste  for  cold  beef  the  Duke  him- 
self consults,  is  none  other  than  Tom  Hill  of 
the  Monthly  Mirror,  whom  Theodore  Hook 
painted  as  Hull  in  *  Gilbert  Gurney.' ' 

Of  all  the  women  in  "Pendennis,"  only 
one  has  been  traced  to  an  original.     Like 


Thackeray's  Originals        173 

Becky,  Blanche  Amory,  if,  strictly  speaking, 
she  had  not  a  prototype,  at  least  was  sug- 
gested by  an  acquaintance.  "At  the  train, 

whom  do  you  think  I  found?     Miss  G , 

who  says  she  is  Blanche  Amory,  and  I  think 
she  is  Blanche  Amory;  amiable  at  times, 
amusing,  clever,  and  depraved,"  Thackeray 
wrote  to  the  Brookfields.  "We  talked  and 
persiflated  all  the  way  to  London,  and  the 
idea  of  her  will  help  me  to  a  good  chapter, 
in  which  I  will  make  Pendennis  and  Blanche 
play  at  being  in  love,  such  a  wicked,  false, 
humbugging,  London  love  as  two  blase  Lon- 
don people  might  act  and  half-deceive 
themselves  that  they  were  in  earnest.  That 
will  complete  the  cycle  of  Mr.  Pen's  worldly 
experiences,  and  then  we  will  make,  or  try 
to  make,  a  good  man  of  him."  The  resem- 
blance of  Blanche  Amory  to  Miss  G was 

distinct  enough  for  Mrs.  Carlyle  to  notice. 

"Not  that  poor  little  is  quite  a  little 

devil  as  Thackeray,  who  has  detested  her 
from  a  child,  has  here  represented,"  she 
remarked.  "But  the  looks,  the  manners, 
the  wiles,  the  larmes,  and  all  that  sort  of 


174    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

thing  are  perfect."  This  was  almost  mag- 
nanimous of  Mrs.  Carlyle,  for  both  she 
and  her  husband  disliked  the  girl.  "Oh, 
my  dear!"  Mr.  Carlyle  exclaimed  when  she 
went  away,  "we  cannot  be  sufficiently 
thankful."  Not  that  Carlyle's  objection 
counts  for  much,  for  he  was  a  gey  ill  person 
to  get  along  with. 

In  Thackeray's  remaining  books  (other 
than  the  historical  works)  it  is  not  so  easy  to 
trace  originals.  Abraham  Hayward,  whose 
elderly  effigy  was  cartooned  in  "Vanity 
Fair,"  was  also  introduced  into  "Mrs.  Per- 
kins's Ball"  as  Mr.  Flam,  and,  Mr.  Locker- 
Lampson  has  recorded,  like  that  exquisite 
he  had  curling  locks,  a  neat  little  foot,  a 
lip  vermilion,  and  an  Abraham  nose.  There 
was  a  prototype  for  Dorothea,  and  probably 
for  other  heroines  of  Mr.  George  Savage 
FitzBoodle's  amorous  adventures.  Captain 
Granby  Calcroft  lives  as  Captain  Granby 
Tip  toff;  and  Mr.  J.  M.  Evans,  one  of  the 
proprietors  of  Punch,  was  portrayed  in 
"The  Kickleburys  on  the  Rhine."  Miss 
Baxter  claims  that  her  sister  Lucy  (to  whom, 


Thackeray's  Originals        175 

on  her  seventeenth  birthday,  the  novelist 
sent  the  verses,  "Seventeen  rosebuds  in  a 
ring")  suggested  at  least  some  aspects  of 
Ethel  Newcome,  the  sweet  and  wayward  — 
"my  sister  at  that  time  going  much  into 
(American)  society  —  she  was  not  yet  twenty, 
and  had  both  wit  and  beauty.  In  his  pic- 
ture of  Ethel  Newcome,  as  she  holds  a 
little  court  about  her  at  one  of  the  great 
London  balls,  Thackeray  reproduces  some 
impressions  made  by  the  New  York  girl. 
Some  of  Ethel's  impatience  for  the  disil- 
lusions of  society,  its  spiteful  comment  and 
harsh  criticism,  might  well  be  reflections 
from  discussions  with  my  sister  in  the 
Brown  House  library,  where  Mr.  Thack- 
eray passed  many  an  hour  talking  of  mat- 
ters grave  and  gay." 

In  "The  Newcomes"  only  a  few  char- 
acters can  be  identified.  Lady  Kew  is 
said  to  have  had  her  original  in  Lady  Lang- 
ford;  and  the  Rev.  Charles  Hqneyman, 
the  incumbent  of  Lady  Whittlesea's  Chapel, 
so  "great  in  the  lachrymatory  line,"  was, 
it  was  commonly  reported,  drawn  from  a 


176    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

well-known  preacher,  whose  enemies  said 
he  had  missed  his  vocation,  insomuch  as 
he  should  have  been  an  actor.  Doyle's 
portrait  of  Fred.  Bayham  suggested  For- 
ster's  burly  figure,  but  there,  in  spite  of 
suggestions  to  the  contrary,  the  resem- 
blance ends;  though  Gandish,  the  painter 
who  kept  an  art-school  in  Newman  Street, 
is  stated  by  Mr.  T.  H.  S.  Escott  to  have 
had  his  prototype  in  "Professor"  Percival 
Leigh's  father,  who  had  a  drawing-school 
in  the  same  neighbourhood.  Lastly,  must 
be  mentioned  Colonel  Thomas  Newcome, 
C.  B.,  who,  like  "Jos"  Sedley  and  James 
Binnie,  was  the  outcome  of  Thackeray's 
Anglo-Indian  connections:  like  them  he 
stepped  out  of  the  Oriental  Club  in  Han- 
over Square.  After  visiting  that  institu- 
tion when  "The  Newcomes"  was  appear- 
ing, a  friend  said  to  Thackeray,  "I  see 
where  you  got  your  Colonel."  "To  be  sure 
you  would,"  said  the  novelist,  "only  I  had 
to  angelicise  the  old  boys  a  little."  Mr. 
Alexander  F.  Baillie,  the  historian  of  the 
Oriental  Club,  indicates  as  an  instance  of 


Thackeray's  Originals        177 

Thackeray's  carefulness,  that  in  "Vanity 
Fair"  when  Jos  returned  for  the  first  time 
from  India,  he  drove  his  horses  in  the  Park; 
he  dined  at  the  fashionable  taverns  (for 
the  Oriental  Club  was  not  as  yet  invented); 
he  frequented  the  theatres,  and  so  on;  but 
that  when  the  Collector  of  Boggley -Wallah 
came  home  in  1827,  three  years  after  the 
Oriental  Club  was  founded,  "his  very  first 
point,  of  course,  was  to  become  a  member 
of  the  Club,  where  he  spent  his  mornings 
in  the  company  of  his  brother  Indians, 
where  he  dined,  or  whence  he  brought 
home  men  to  dine." 

It  has  been  asserted  by  those  who  were 
acquainted  with  Thackeray's  family  circle 
that  the  character  was  taken  from  one  or 
more  of  his  relatives  —  from  Major  Car- 
michael  Smyth,  of  the  Bengal  Engineers; 
or  General  Charles  Carmichael,  of  the  2nd 
European  Bengal  Light  Cavalry  (20th  Hus- 
sars); or  Colonel  John  Dowdeswell  Shake- 
spear.  It  matters  little  from  which  of  these 
the  preux  chevalier  was  drawn.  Thackeray 
was  at  his  old  school,  the  Charterhouse,  on 


178    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Founder's  Day,  1854,  when  the  idea  struck 
him  to  make  the  Colonel  a  "Codd"  (a 
colloquial  term  for  a  Poor  Brother  of  the 
Charterhouse).  He  invited  a  boy  with 
whom  he  was  acquainted  to  introduce  him 
to  Captain  Light,  an  old  army  man  whom 
reduced  circumstances  had  compelled  to 
seek  the  shelter  of  Thomas  Sutton's  Hos- 
pital. Many  times  he  went  to  see  the 
veteran,  who  gleefully  told  all  and  sundry, 
"I  'm  sitting  for  Colonel  Newcome."  As 
readers  of  the  book  can  never  forget,  the 
Colonel  spent  the  last  months  of  his  life 
as  a  "Codd,"  and  it  was  in  that  quiet  re- 
treat he  drew  his  last  breath.  "At  the 
usual  evening  hour  the  chapel  bell  began 
to  toll,  and  Thomas  Newcome's  hands 
outside  the  bed  feebly  beat  a  time.  And 
just  as  the  last  bell  struck,  a  peculiar  sweet 
smile  shone  over  his  face,  and  he  lifted  up 
his  head  a  little,  and  quickly  said  'Adsum! ' 
and  fell  back.  It  was  the  word  we  used 
at  school,  when  names  were  called;  and 
lo,  he,  whose  heart  was  as  that  of  a  "little 
child,  had  answered  to  his  name,  and  stood 


Thackeray's  Originals        179 

in  the  presence  of  The  Master."  Six  years 
after  the  publication  of  "The  Newcomes," 
Thackeray's  stepfather  passed  away  at  a 
patriarchal  age  and  he  was  buried  in  the 
Episcopal  Church  at  Ayr,  where  there  is  a 
memorial  brass,  bearing  the  following  in- 
scription : 

SACRED  TO  THE  MEMORY  OF  MAJOR  WILLIAM  HENRY 
CARMICHAEL  SMYTH,  OF  THE  BENGAL  ENGINEERS, 
WHO  DEPARTED  THIS  LIFE  AT  AYR,  9TH  SEPTEM- 
BER, 1861;  AGED  81  YEARS. 

"Adsum. 

"And  lo,  he  whose  heart  was  as  that  of  a  little  child 
had  answered  to  his  name,  and  stood  in  the  pres- 
ence of  the  Master."  —  Newcomes,  vol.  iii., 
chap.  26. 

On  the  rebuilding  of  the  church,  his  grave  was  brought 
within  the  walls.  He  was  laid  to  rest  immediately 
beneath  this  place  by  his  step-son,  William  Make- 
peace Thackeray.  This  memorial  was  put  in  1887 
by  some  members  of  the  family. 


CHAPTER    VIII 

The  London  of  "Esmond"  and  "The 
Virginians" 

THE  London  of  "Esmond"  and  "The 
Virginians"  is  virtually  the  London  of 
the  eighteenth  century.  It  was  the  age  of 
the  splendid,  embroidered,  beruffled,  snuff- 
boxed,  red-heeled,  impertinent  Folly,  that 
withal  knew  how  to  make  itself  respected. 
It  was  the  age  of  the  bel  air  and  the  dignified 
mien,  of  perukes  and  powder  and  paint, 
when  gallantry  was  the  recognised  pursuit 
and  morality  was  at  nearly  so  low  an  ebb 
as  in  that  period  of  mad  excesses,  the  Restora- 
tion. It  was  the  age  when  men  drank  deep 
and  swore  heavily,  when  swords  were  drawn 
on  the  slightest  provocation  and  women 
were  left  widows  through  the  consequences  of 
careless  words  uttered  by  excited  men  at  the 
gaming-tables.  It  was  the  age  of  three- 
bottle  men  and  of  all-night  sittings  at  tav- 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     181 

erns.  The  "pace"  of  the  viveurs  of  the  day 
was  awful.  Peterborough  lived  into  the  very 
jaws  of  death,  and  Godolphin  laboured  all 
day  and  gambled  all  night;  while  Boling- 
broke  in  a  letter  to  Swift,  written  when  he 
had  retired  to  Dawling,  mentioned  that  he 
rose  at  six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  refreshed, 
serene,  and  calm,  and  called  to  mind  the  time 
when  he  lived  in  London  and  about  that 
hour  would  be  going  to  bed,  surfeited  by 
pleasure  and  jaded  with  business.  An  ex- 
amination of  the  habits  of  men  of  the  beau 
monde  of  the  day  cannot  but  fill  us  with  envy 
of  the  strength  of  their  constitutions.  Of 
all  the  wits  only  Pope,  always  more  or  less 
an  invalid,  did  not  lead  this  life,  and  of  all 
the  wits  only  he  and  Prior  were  not  fat. 
Swift,  Addison,  Steele,  Gay,  Thomson,  all 
were  corpulent,  as  must  be  those  who,  taking 
no  exercise,  spend  their  time,  drinking,  in 
heated  rooms. 

The  difference  between  the  present  time 
and  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne  is  not  to  be 
explained  merely  by  the  lapse  of  two  cen- 
turies. There  was  less  difference  between  the 


1 82    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

years  1700  and  1500  than  in  the  later  similar 
interval.  Progress  has  made  immense  strides, 
and  as  Bulwer  Lytton  would  have  said,  the 
British  Lion  is  aroused  and  the  schoolmaster 
is  abroad. 

A  picture  of  the  day  is  conjured  up  by 
Thackeray :  "  The  maypole  rises  in  the  Strand 
again  in  London,  the  churches  are  thronged 
with  daily  worshippers,  the  beaux  are  gather- 
ing in  the  coffee-houses,  the  gentry  are  going 
to  the  drawing-room,  the  ladies  are  thronging 
to  the  toy-shops,  the  chairmen  are  jostling 
in  the  streets,  the  footmen  are  running  with 
links  before  the  chariots  or  fighting  round 
the  theatre  doors.  In  the  country  I  see  the 
young  squire  riding  to  Eton  with  his  servants 
behind  him,  and  Will  Wimble,  the  friend  of 
the  family,  to  see  him  safe.  To  make  that 
journey  from  the  squire's  and  back,  Will  is 
a  week  on  horseback.  The  coach  takes  five 
days  between  London  and  Bath.  The  Judges 
and  the  Bar  ride  the  circuit.  If  my  Lady 
comes  to  town  in  her  post-chariot,  her  people 
carry  pistols  to  fire  a  salute  on  Captain 
Macheath  if  he  should  appear,  and  her  couri- 


"Esmond"  and  ' ' Virginians' '     183 

ers  ride  ahead  to  prepare  apartments  for  her 
at  the  great  caravanseries  on  the  road; 
Boniface  receives  her  under  the  creaking  sign 
of  the  'Bell'  or  the  'Ram/  and  he  and  his 
chamberlains  bow  her  up  the  great  stair  to 
the  state  apartments,  whilst  her  carriage 
rumbles  into  the  courtyard,  where  the  'Exe- 
ter Fly'  is  housed  that  performs  the  journey 
in  eight  days,  God  willing,  having  achieved 
its  daily  flight  of  twenty  miles,  and  landed 
its  passengers  for  supper  and  sleep.  The 
curate  is  taking  his  pipe  in  the  kitchen,  where 
the  Captain's  man,  having  hung  up  his 
master's  half-pike,  is  at  his  bacon  and  eggs, 
bragging  of  Ramillies  and  Malplaquet  to 
the  townsfolk,  who  have  their  club  in  the 
chimney-corner.  The  Captain  is  ogling  the 
chambermaid  in  the  wooden  gallery,  or  brib- 
ing her  to  know  who  is  the  pretty  young 
mistress  that  has  come  in  the  coach.  The 
pack-horses  are  in  the  great  stable,  and  the 
drivers  and  ostlers  carousing  in  the  tap.  And 
in  Mrs.  Landlady's  bar,  over  a  glass  of 
strong  waters,  sits  a  gentleman  of  military 
appearance,  who  travels  with  pistols,  as  all 


184    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

the  rest  of  the  world  does,  and  has  a  rattling 
gray  mare  in  the  stable  which  will  be  saddled 
and  away  with  its  owner  half-an-hour  before 
the  'Fly*  sets  out  on  its  last  day's  flight. 
And  some  five  miles  on  the  road,  as  the  'Ex- 
eter Fly'  comes  jingling  and  creaking  on- 
wards, it  will  suddenly  be  brought  to  a  halt 
by  a  gentleman  on  a  gray  mare,  with  a  black 
vizard  on  his  face,  who  thrusts  a  long  pistol 
into  the  coach  window,  and  bids  the  com- 
pany to  hand  out  their  purses.  ..." 

The  maypole  has  gone;  the  churches  are 
not  filled  on  week-days;  the  toy -shops  no 
longer  exist;  footmen  do  not  run  with  links 
before  the  chariots  of  the  nobility.  Links 
died  out  when  the  streets  were  lighted  with 
gas,  the  coaches  have  been  replaced  by  rail- 
ways, and  even  the  steam-engine  is  passing 
as  electricity  slowly  but  surely  takes  its  place 
as  the  motive-power  of  the  future.  The 
country  inns  have  died  of  inanition,  though 
the  motor-car  may  here  and  there  be  giving 
a  few  hostelries  a  new  lease  of  life,  and  the 
highwayman  is  as  extinct  as  the  dodo. 

The  city  of  London  during  the  reign  of 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"    185 

Queen  Anne  multiplied  its  size  manifold, 
and  expanded  beyond  its  walls,  but  there 
were  still  spaces  on  all  sides  —  Hoxton  Fields, 
White  Conduit  Street,  Lamb's  Conduit  Fields, 
Marylebone  Fields;  but  beyond  St.-Martin- 
le-Grand  the  streets  were  left  in  darkness 
absolute,  and  Temple  Bar  and  the  other  city 
gates  were  closed  at  night. 

Bloomsbury  was  beginning.  Southampton 
House  was  there,  and  Bedford  House,  at  the 
back  of  which,  and  overlooking  the  gardens, 
George  Warrington  lived  in  the  street  now 
known  as  Southampton  Row.  Montague 
House  was  a  landmark,  and  in  1759  was 
opened  as  the  British  Museum.  "There's 
Montague  House  made  into  a  confounded 
Don  Saltero's  museum,  with  books  and  stuffed 
birds  and  rhinoceroses,"  Lord  March  ex- 
claimed at  White's  in  disgust.  Soon  the 
Sloane  and  other  collections  outgrew  their 
habitation,  and  a  new  Ionic  structure  was 
erected  in  1823  by  Sir  Robert  Smirke,  which 
is  regarded  as  perhaps  the  most  successful 
imitation  of  the  Greek  architecture  in  this 
country.  The  famous  reading-room  under 


1 86    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

the  dome,  however,  was  not  built  until  half- 
a-century  later.  Steele,  who,  after  marrying 
his  "dear  Prue,"  had  lived  in  "the  third 
house  from  Germaine  Street,  left  hand  of 
Berry  Street,"  in  St.  James's,  where  the  rent 
was  not  paid  until  after  the  landlord  had  put 
in  an  execution  on  Captain  Steele's  furniture, 
moved  to  a  mansion  in  Bloomsbury  Square. 
At  this  residence  there  was  the  same  diffi- 
culty about  the  payment  of  rent,  and  it  was 
here  probably  that  Steele  put  the  bailiff's 
men  into  his  livery  and  made  them  wait  at 
table.  "Do  I  know  the  Mall?  Do  I  know 
the  Opera?  Why,  Bloomsbury  is  the  very 
height  of  the  mode"  the  satirical  Mr.  St. 
John  assured  Mrs.  Steele.  "  T  is  rus  in  urbe. 
You  have  gardens  all  the  way  to  Hampstead 
and  palaces  round  about  you."  It  is  almost 
impossible  nowadays  to  realise  that  remark 
about  the  surroundings  of  Bloomsbury;  yet 
when  Queen's  Square  was  built  in  the  reign  of 
Queen  Anne  —  it  was  named  in  compliment 
to  her,  but  the  statue  in  the  gardens  is  that 
of  Queen  Charlotte  —  much  praise  was  be- 
stowed upon  it  because  of  the  beautiful  view 


§     '§ 
^       ft 

8   2 


r  C3 

o  I 
I 

p 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"    187 

to  the  Hampstead  and  Highgate  hills,  for 
which  reason  the  north  side  was  left  open! 
The  outlook  to  the  north  is  to-day  confined 
to  the  immediately  adjacent  Guildford  Street. 

South  of  Old  Bourne,  or  Holborn,  as  it  is 
now  written,  was  a  popular  quarter.  Old 
Lord  Castlewood  had  at  one  time  a  fine 
house  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields,  nigh  to  the 
Duke's  Theatre  and  the  Portuguese  Ambas- 
sador's Chapel.  It  was  at  the  Duke's  Play- 
house that  Francis,  Viscount  Castlewood, 
arranged  to  meet  Lord  Mohun  before  going 
on  to  sup  at  the  "Rose"  or  the  "Greyhound," 
where  they  had  agreed  to  quarrel.  The  play 
was  Mr.  Wycherley's  "Love  in  a  Wood." 
Thackeray  has  mentioned: 

"Mrs.  Bracegirdle  performed  the  girl's 
part  in  the  comedy.  .  .  .  She  was  disguised  as 
a  page,  and  came  and  stood  before  the  gentle- 
men as  they  sat  on  the  stage,  and  looked 
over  her  shoulder  with  a  pair  of  arch  black 
eyes,  and  laughed  at  my  Lord,  and  asked 
what  ailed  the  gentleman  from  the  country, 
and  had  he  had  bad  news  from  Bullock  Fair. 
Between  the  acts  of  the  play  the  gentlemen 


i88    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

crossed  over  and  conversed  freely.  There 
were  two  of  Lord  Mohun's  party,  Captain 
Macartney  in  a  military  habit,  and  a  gentle- 
man in  a  suit  of  blue  velvet  and  silver  in  a 
fair  periwig,  with  a  rich  fall  of  point  of  Venice 
lace  —  my  Lord  the  Earl  of  Warwick  and 
Holland.  My  Lord  had  a  paper  of  oranges, 
which  he  ate,  and  offered  to  the  actresses, 
joking  with  them.  And  Mrs.  Bracegirdle, 
when  my  Lord  Mohun  said  something  rude, 
turned  on  him  and  asked  him  what  he  did 
there,  and  whether  he  and  his  friends  had 
come  to  stab  anybody  else,  as  they  did  poor 
Will  Mountford." 

But  the  play  could  not  have  been  "Love 
in  a  Wood,"  for  the  disguise  of  a  page  is  not 
worn  by  any  of  the  ladies  in  Mr.  Wycherley's 
comedy,  and  Mrs.  Bracegirdle  is  not  known 
ever  to  have  sustained  any  part  in  that  work, 
which  was  revived  at  Drury  Lane  in  1718, 
when  the  play-bills  stated  it  had  not  been 
represented  for  thirty  years. 

In  Thackeray's  historical  novels,  as  indeed 
in  most  of  his  writings,  there  is  frequent 
reference  to  the  playhouse.  It  will  be  re- 


"Esmond"  and  ''Virginians'1    189 

membered  that  when  Colonel  Esmond  re- 
tired from  the  army  he  devoted  his  leisure  to 
the  composition  of  a  play,  whereof  the  promp- 
ter's copy,  once  in  the  possession  of  Mrs. 
Rachel  Esmond  Warrington  of  Virginia, 
is  docketed  "The  Faithful  Fool:  a  Comedy." 
It  was  a  sentimental  piece,  being  written  by 
a  young  man  deeply  in  love  with  a  beautiful 
woman,  and  was  admired  more  by  Mr. 
(afterwards  Sir  Richard)  Steele  than  by  Mr. 
Addison.  The  latter  was  bringing  out  his 
play  of  "Cato"  at  the  time,  the  blaze  of 
which  quite  extinguished  the  amateur's  pro- 
duction, which  perished  on  the  third  night 
of  its  performance  by  their  Majesties'  Ser- 
vants, with  only  half-a-dozen  persons  to  be- 
hold its  last  agonies.  Esmond  did  not  put 
his  name  to  the  piece,  which  was  printed  as 
by  "A  Person  of  Quality."  Only  nine  copies 
were  sold,  though  the  famous  Mr.  Dennis 
praised  it,  and  said  it  was  a  work  of  great 
merit;  and  Colonel  Esmond  had  the  whole 
impression  burned  one  day  in  a  rage  by  Jack 
Lockwood,  his  man. 

In  "The  Virginians"  the  Warringtons  and 


i9°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

the  Lamberts  go  to  Covent  Garden  Theatre 
to  witness  a  performance  of  the  play,  by  the 
great  Mr.  John  Home  of  Scotland,  entitled 
"Douglas,"  in  which  Mr.  Spranger  Barry 
was  magnificently  attired  as  the  immortal 
Norval,  and  the  beautiful  Mrs.  Washington 
made  all  the  ladies,  and  even  the  grenadiers 
on  guard  on  each  side  of  the  stage,  weep 
visibly  and  audibly.  From  his  grandfather, 
Colonel  Esmond,  Mr.  George  Warrington 
inherited  some  literary  ambitions,  and  his 
play  "Carpezan"  was  produced  with  great 
success,  with  Mr.  Rich,  at  Covent  Garden. 
George  was  less  fortunate  with  his  second 
play,  a  poetical  tragedy  entitled  "Poco- 
hontas,"  produced  at  Drury  Lane  by  Gar- 
rick,  with  O'Hagan  (ne  Geoghagan)  as  Sir 
Walter  Raleigh,  and  Mrs.  Pritchard  as  the 
eponymous  heroine.  At  the  first  perform- 
ance, in  the  front  boxes  sat  Samuel  Johnson, 
who  could  not  see,  and  Joshua  Reynolds, 
who  could  not  hear,  and  who  had  come  good- 
naturedly  a  deux  to  form  an  opinion  of  the 
play.  Everything  went  smoothly  enough; 
but  when  the  heroine  rushed  to  the  prison- 


s 

o    8 

«   fa 

H 

3 

H 


"Esmond"  and  " Virginians"     191 

er's  arms,  and  a  number  of  people  were 
actually  in  tears,  a  rude  fellow  in  the  pit 
bawled  out,  "Bedad!  there's  the  Belle  Sav- 
age kissing  the  'Saracen's  Head'"  —  the 
ignorant  fellow  not  knowing  that  Pocohontas 
was  the  Belle  Savage  from  which  the  tavern 
took  its  name. 

The  incident  in  "The  Virginians"  of  the 
marriage  of  O'Hagan  with  Lady  Maria  was 
doubtless  founded  upon  the  true  story  of 
O'Brien  the  actor,  who  ran  away  with  Lady 
Susan  Fox  Strangways,  whose  relations  sent 
them  to  America,  with  an  allowance  of  four 
hundred  a  year,  settled  by  Lord  Holland  on 
his  niece;  but  the  daring  couple  eventually 
decided  not  to  accept  expatriation,  and  re- 
turned to  England,  where  they  led  a  happy 
and  contented  life. 

Though  to-day  the  glory  of  Covent  Garden 
has  faded,  yet  a  portion  of  the  Italian  colon- 
nade known  as  the  Piazza,  remains  to  remind 
us  of  the  time  when  it  was  one  of  the  sights  of 
the  town.  Great  houses  were  dotted  around 
the  vast  square,  and  there  still  stands  a  corner 
house  —  the  frontage,  unaltered  through 


i92    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

many  generations,  may  be  seen  in  Hogarth's 
"Morning"  —  which  after  the  Restoration 
was  occupied  by  Sir  Kenelm  Digby,  later  by 
Admiral  the  Earl  of  Orford,  and  eventually 
by  Evans's  famous  tavern.  Co  vent  Garden 
was  one  of  the  great  centres  of  the  taverns 
and  coffee-houses  which  played  so  great  a 
part  in  the  social  life  of  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury, the  better  class  of  which  were  the  pre- 
decessors of  the  clubs  of  to-day,  and  the  less 
reputable,  and  those  frequented  by  the  lower 
orders,  of  the  modern  public-houses.  Each 
and  all,  however,  were  social  exchanges  for 
news,  which  but  for  these  meeting-places 
would  have  travelled  slowly  in  an  era  when 
newspapers  were,  to  all  intents  and  purposes, 
non-existent.  Button,  once  the  servant  of 
that  Countess  of  Warwick  whom  Addison 
married,  set  up  his  coffee-house  on  the  south 
side  of  Russell  Street,  two  doors  from  Covent 
Garden,  and  it  was  here  that  the  famous  Mr. 
Congreve  came,  and  the  still  greater  Dean 
Swift.  Mr.  Addison  set  up  his  headquarters 
at  Button's,  and  was  usually  to  be  found 
there,  surrounded  by  "Dick"  Steele,  Bud- 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     193 

gell,  Tickell,  Phillips,  and  Carey,  the  principal 
officers  of  his  court.  There  was  a  time  when 
Mr.  Alexander  Pope  sat  at  the  feet  of  the 
author  of  "Cato,"  but  the  latter  could  "bear, 
like  the  Turk,  no  brother  near  the  throne," 
and  Mr.  Pope  withdrew  from  that  society. 

It  was  on  the  west  side  of  Bow  Street 
(where  Lord  Mohun  lived  in  lodgings),  at 
the  corner  of  Russell  Street,  that  the  Rose 
Tavern  stood.  This  had  a  singularly  bad 
reputation,  and  a  room  in  the  hostelry,  show- 
ing a  midnight  debauch,  was  depicted  in  the 
third  print  of  "The  Rake's  Progress."  Sub- 
sequently it  was  rechristened  Will's,  and  its 
character  improved.  Nowhere  was  the  smok- 
ing more  constant  than  at  Will's,  that  cele- 
brated house,  sacred  to  polite  letters.  "  Under 
no  roof  was  a  greater  variety  of  figures  to  be 
seen,"  Macaulay  has  recorded.  "  There  were 
earls  in  stars  and  garters,  clergymen  in  cas- 
socks and  bands,  pert  Templars,  sheepish 
lads  from  the  universities,  translators  and 
index-makers  in  ragged  coats  of  frieze."  Old 
Dryden  went  there  and  sat  for  hours  together 
in  a  room  on  the  first  floor,  where  the  com- 


194    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

pany  assembled,  and  beaux  contended  to- 
gether for  the  honour  to  be  allowed  to  take 
a  pinch  out  of  the  great  man's  snuff-box. 
Tom's  was  a  resort  frequented  by  Dr. 
Johnson,  Reynolds,  and  Garrick;  and  Offley's, 
in  Henrietta  Street,  was  visited  by  all  who 
cared  to  listen  to  high-class  singing.  Not 
far  off  was  the  old  Devil  Tavern,  near  Temple 
Bar,  where  Ben  Jonson  had  reigned  supreme 
among  the  wits  and  gallants  of  his  day.  The 
"Greyhound"  (in  Charing  Cross,  where 
my  Lord  Castlewood  stayed)  and  Lockit's 
(in  Spring  Gardens)  were  also  popular 
resorts. 

Farther  west  were  the  "George"  and  the 
"Star  and  Garter,"  "over  against  the  gate 
of  the  palace  in  Pall  Mall;"  and  in  St. 
James's  Street  the  "  Cocoa-Tree"  and  White's 
Chocolate-House.  White's  Club,  frequented 
by  the  fashionable  men  about  town,  had  its 
home  at  the  chocolate-house  of  the  same 
name.  Close  by  the  corner  of  St.  James's 
Street  which  faces  that  part  of  St.  James's 
Palace  which  stands  between  the  Colour 
Court  and  the  Ambassador's  Court  was  the 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     195 

St.  James's  Coffee-House,  where  fashionable 
wits  forgathered,  and  Swift  wrote  so  many 
of  his  letters  to  sweet,  womanly  Stella. 
"He  never  sends  away  a  letter  to  her  but 
he  begins  a  new  one  in  the  same  day.  He 
can't  bear  to  let  go  her  little  hand,  as  it 
were."  Next  door,  in  later  days,  Thackeray 
lived  for  two  years. 

Pall  Mall,  perhaps  owing  to  its  proximity 
to  St.  James's  Palace,  has  always  been  a 
favourite  street  of  "the  quality:" 

"  In  town  let  me  live,  in  town  let  me  die, 
For  in  truth  I  can't  relish  the  country,  not  I; 
If  one  must  have  a  villa  in  summer  to  dwell, 
Oh,  give  me  the  sweet  shady  side  of  Pall  Mall ! " 

"I  lodged  in  the  street  called  Pall  Mall,  the 
ordinary  residence  of  strangers  because  of 
its  vicinity  to  the  Queen's  Palace,  the  Park, 
the  Parliament  House,  the  theatres,  and  the 
chocolate  and  coffee  houses,  where  the  best 
company  frequent,"  says  Defoe.  "If  you 
would  know  our  manner  of  living,  't  is  thus : 
we  rise  by  nine,  and  those  that  frequent 
great  men's  levees  find  entertainment  at 
them  till  eleven,  or,  as  at  Holland,  go  to 


196    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

tea-tables.  About  twelve,  the  beau  monde 
assembles  in  several  coffee  and  chocolate 
houses,  the  best  of  which  are  the  Cocoa-Tree 
or  White's  Chocolate  House;  the  St.  James's, 
the  Smyrna,  Mr.  Crockford's  and  the  British 
coffee-houses;  and  all  these  so  near  one 
another  that  in  less  than  one  hour  you  can 
see  the  company  of  them  all." 

Thackeray  also  has  written  of  Pall  Mall 
and  its  memories,  which  were  especially  dear 
to  him.  He  lived  at  the  southwest  corner 
of  St.  James's  Street,  and  one  may  well 
believe  that  as  he  walked  through  the 
famous  street  he  peopled  it  with  the  cele- 
brated folk  who  had  lived  and  walked  and 
talked  there. 

"I  remember  peeping  through  the  colon- 
nade at  Carlton  House,  and  seeing  the 
abode  of  the  great  Prince  Regent.  I  can 
see  yet  the  Guards  pacing  before  the  gate 
of  the  palace.  The  palace!  What  palace? 
The  palace  exists  no  more  than  the  palace 
of  Nebuchadnezzar.  It  is  but  a  name  now. 
Where  be  the  sentries  who  used  to  salute  as 
the  Royal  chariots  drove  in  and  out?  The 


•<  z 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     197 

chariots,  with  the  kings  inside,  have  driven 
to  the  realms  of  Pluto;  the  tall  Guards  have 
marched  into  darkness,  and  the  echoes  of 
their  drums  are  rolling  in  Hades.  Where  the 
palace  once  stood  a  hundred  little  children 
are  paddling  up  and  down  the  steps  to  St. 
James's  Park.  A  score  of  grave  gentlemen 
are  taking  their  tea  at  the  Athenaeum  Club; 
as  many  grisly  warriors  are  garrisoning  the 
United  Service  Club  opposite.  Pall  Mall  is 
the  great  social  Exchange  of  London  now  — 
the  mart  of  news,  of  politics,  of  scandal,  of 
rumour  —  the  English  Forum,  so  to  speak, 
where  men  discuss  the  last  despatch  from  the 
Crimea,  the  last  speech  of  Lord  Derby,  the 
next  move  of  Lord  John.  And,  now  and 
then,  to  a  few  antiquarians  whose  thoughts 
are  with  the  past  rather  than  with  the 
present,  it  is  a  memorial  of  old  times  and 
old  people,  and  Pall  Mall  is  our  Palmyra. 
Look !  About  this  spot  Tom  of  Ten  Thou- 
sand was  killed  by  Konigsmarck's  gang. 
In  that  great  red  house  Gainsborough  lived, 
and  Culloden  Cumberland,  George  III.'s 
uncle.  Yonder  is  Sarah  Marlborough's  palace, 


198    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

just  as  it  stood  when  that  termagant  occu- 
pied it.  At  25  Walter  Scott  used  to  live;  at 
the  house  now  79,  and  occupied  by  the 
Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in 
Foreign  Parts,  resided  Mistress  Eleanor 
Gwynn,  comedian.  How  often  has  Queen 
Caroline's  chair  issued  from  under  yonder 
arch!  All  the  men  of  the  Georges  have 
passed  up  and  down  the  street.  It  has  seen 
Walpole's  chariot  and  Chatham's  sedan; 
and  Fox,  Gibbon,  Sheridan,  on  their  way  to 
Brooks's;  and  stately  William  Pitt,  stalking 
on  the  arm  of  Dundas;  and  Hanger  and  Tom 
Sheridan  reeling  out  of  Raggett's;  and 
Byron  limping  into  Wattier's;  and  Swift 
striding  out  of  Bury  Street;  and  Mr.  Addi- 
son  and  Dick  Steele,  both  perhaps  a  little 
the  better  for  liquor;  and  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  the  Duke  of  York  clattering  over 
the  pavement;  and  Johnson  counting  the 
posts  along  the  street,  after  dawdling  before 
Dodsley's  window;  and  Horry  Walpole  bob- 
bing into  his  carriage  with  a  gimcrack  just 
bought  at  Christie's;  and  George  Selwyn 
sauntering  into  White's." 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"    199 

Pall  Mall  is  now  as  much  as  ever  the  great 
social  Exchange  of  London,  and  if  it  now 
contains  few  historic  mansions,  it  contains 
some  of  the  best-known  clubs  in  the  world; 
and  a  man  who  is  acquainted  with  those 
whom  not  to  know  argues  yourself  unknown 
may  meet  more  famous  people  in  an  hour 
in  that  street  than  in  a  week  in  any  other 
thoroughfare. 

Dick  Steele  and  Joseph  Addison,  just 
mentioned  in  the  passage  quoted  from  "The 
Four  Georges,"  appear  frequently  in  "Es- 
mond." Steele  met  Esmond  for  the  first 
time  when  Harry  was  a  child  at  Castlewood 
and  the  author  was  a  soldier  in  the  Life 
Guards.  It  was  years  later  when  Thackeray's 
hero  met  the  gentleman  whom  Pope  satirised 
as  Atticus.  Esmond,  after  dining  with  Dick 
Steele  at  the  Guard-table  at  St.  James's 
Palace,  and  having  left  early  one  sunny 
afternoon,  when  his  host  had  by  chance  a 
sober  fit,  in  walking  down  the  street  was 
surprised  when  his  companion  suddenly  left 
his  arm  and  ran  after  a  gentleman  who  was 
poring  over  a  folio  volume  at  the  book-shop 


200    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

near  to  St.  James's  Church.  The  tall,  fair 
man  in  a  snuff-coloured  suit,  with  a  plain 
sword,  very  sober  and  almost  shabby  in 
appearance  —  at  least,  when  compared  with 
Captain  Steele,  who  loved  to  adorn  his 
jolly,  round  person  with  the  finest  of  clothes, 
and  shone  in  scarlet  and  gold  lace  —  was  no 
less  a  person  than  Mr.  Joseph  Addison,  who 
took  them  both  to  his  lodgings  in  the  Hay- 
market,  and  gave  them  a  bottle  of  wine, 
invited  Harry  to  give  him  some  particulars 
of  Marlborough's  action  for  use  in  "The 
Campaign,"  upon  the  writing  of  which  he 
was  then  engaged,  and  subsequently  read 
them  the  portion  already  composed. 

At  the  Court  end  of  the  town,  north  of 
St.  James's,  lies  Mayfair.  There,  in  Bond 
Street,  stayed  Mr.  Harry  Warrington  in 
lodgings,  the  landlord  of  which  was  Mr. 
Ruff,  the  head-waiter  and  aide-de-camp  of 
Mr.  Mackreth,  the  proprietor  of  White's 
Club.  It  was  by  the  advice  of  his  fashion- 
able friends  who  introduced  him  to  White's 
that  the  "Fortunate  Youth"  moved  west- 
ward from  his  quarters  at  the  Bedford 


-o 
«     o 


1  'Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     201 

Coffee-House  in  Covent  Garden.  In  Hill 
Street,  close  by,  lived  Harry's  uncle,  Sir 
Miles  Warrington;  and  also  the  best  friends 
a  man  could  desire,  Major-General  and  Mrs. 
Lambert,  and  their  children,  Theo  and  Hetty. 
In  Hill  Street  for  a  time  stayed  Mr.  Redmond 
Barry,  afterwards  known  as  Mr.  Barry 
Lyndon,  when  he  was  forcing  his  addresses 
upon  Honoria,  Countess  of  Lyndon,  who 
had  a  house  in  Berkeley  Square.  Hill  Street 
figures  largely  in  many  of  Thackeray's 
books,  and  it  is  the  great  Gaunt  Street  of 
"Vanity  Fair,"  where  lived  Lady  Gaunt's 
mother  and  Sir  Pitt  Crawley,  to  the  latter 
of  whom  Becky  went  as  governess.  Who 
does  not  remember  her  arrival  there  from 
the  Sedleys'  house  in  Russell  Square?  "Hav- 
ing passed  through  Shiverley  Square  into 
Great  Gaunt  Street,  the  carriage  at  length 
stopped  at  a  tall,  gloomy  house  between  two 
other  tall,  gloomy  houses,  each  with  the 
hatchment  over  the  middle  drawing-room 
window;  as  is  the  custom  of  houses  in  Great 
Gaunt  Street,  in  which  gloomy  locality  death 
seems  to  reign  perpetual."  Shiverley  Square, 


202    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

also  called  by  Thackeray  Gaunt  Square,  is 
Berkeley  Square,  in  which  is  situated  Gaunt 
House,  once  the  residence  of  the  Most 
Honourable  George  Gustavus,  Marquis  of 
Steyne.  "Gaunt  House  occupies  nearly  a 
side  of  the  Square.  The  remaining  three 
sides  are  composed  of  mansions  that  have 
passed  away  into  dowagerism  —  tall,  dark 
houses,  with  window-frames  of  stone,  or 
picked  out  in  a  lighter  red.  Little  light 
seems  to  be  behind  those  lean,  comfortless 
casements  now;  and  hospitality  to  have 
passed  away  from  their  doors  as  much  as 
the  laced  lacqueys  and  link-boys  of  old 
times  who  used  to  put  out  their  torches 
with  the  blank  iron  extinguishers  that  still 
flank  the  lamp  over  the  steps.  The  Square 
has  a  dreary  look;  nor  is  my  Lord  Steyne's 
palace  less  dreary.  All  I  have  ever  seen  of 
it  is  the  vast  wall  in  front,  with  the  rustic 
columns  at  the  great  gates,  through  which 
an  old  porter  peers,  with  a  fat  and  gloomy 
red  face,  and  over  the  wall  the  garret  and 
bedroom  windows,  and  the  chimney  out  of 
which  there  seldom  comes  any  smoke  now." 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"    203 

In  Clarges  Street  Barry  Lyndon's  father 
lived  in  the  day  of  his  splendour;  and  there, 
too,  Beatrix,  Baroness  Bernstein  (nee  Es- 
mond), held  her  card-parties,  her  Wednesday 
and  Sunday  evenings,  save  during  the  short 
season  when  Ranelagh  was  open  on  a  Sun- 
day, when  the  desolate  old  woman  sat  alone, 
waiting  hopelessly  for  the  scapegrace  nephew 
that  her  battered  heart  had  learned  to  love. 
The  whirligig  of  time  had  brought  its  re- 
venge, and  the  once  beautiful  Beatrix,  who 
scorned  the  love  of  honest  men,  who  schemed 
to  become  a  duchess,  who  intrigued  to  marry 
a  prince,  and  contented  herself  with  becom- 
ing his  mistress  —  the  lovely,  wayward  girl 
—  was  left  in  her  old  age  to  hunger  for  love 
that  was  now  denied  her.  We  know  she  was 
heartless,  we  know  she  was  cruel,  but,  such 
is  man's  nature,  he  forgives  her  all  because 
of  her  marvellous  charm,  and  gives  her  the 
pity  that,  to  her  credit  be  it  said,  she  would 
have  refused  with  scorn. 

Ranelagh,  with  its  Rotunda,  was  a  great 
resort  alike  of  the  monde  and  the  demi-monde. 
Harry  Warrington  took  his  brother  there, 


204    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

and  heard  for  the  first  time  a  full  orchestra 
and  a  piece  of  Mr.  Handel's  satisfactorily 
performed.  Vauxhall  Gardens,  with  its 
"twenty  thousand  additional  lamps"  lighted 
every  night,  was  quite  as  well  known,  and 
in  later  years  was  honoured  by  a  visit  from 
Mr.  Arthur  Pendennis  of  the  Temple  (the 
author  of  "Walter  Lorraine,"  a  novel  that 
enjoyed  some  favour  in  its  time).  There  he 
was  fortunate  enough  to  rescue  beauty  in 
distress  in  the  person  of  Miss  Fanny  Bolton, 
who  with  her  mother  kept  the  lodge  at 
Shepherd's  Inn.  Marylebone  Gardens  was 
another  place  of  amusement;  and  there  was 
also  an  entertainment  at  Sadler's  Wells, 
Islington,  where  at  one  time  the  attractions 
were  "the  most  singular  kind  of  diversion 
on  eight  hand-bells  by  Mr.  Franklin,  as  well 
as  the  surprising  performances  of  Signora 
Catterina."  Gaming,  however,  was  the  fash- 
ionable enjoyment  of  the  upper  classes. 
Those  who  were  fond  of  books  read  them  in 
secret,  for  all  the  world  as  if  reading  were  a 
vice.  "Books!  Prithee,  don't  talk  to  me 
about  books,"  said  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marl- 


•<    "5 
Z     S 


" Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     205 

borough.  "The  only  books  I  know  are  men 
and  cards."  The  king  in  state  played  hazard 
with  the  nobility  on  Twelfth-Day  for  the 
benefit  of  the  groom-porter,  and  even  clergy- 
men did  not  look  unkindly  at  the  practice. 
Gentlemen  lost  and  won  thousands  at  a 
sitting:  it  is  said  that  Lord  Steyne  won  his 
marquisate  at  the  gaming-table.  Many  after 
running  through  their  patrimony  found  their 
way  to  the  sponging-houses  in  Cursitor 
Street,  en  route  to  the  debtors'  prisons  of  the 
Fleet,  King's  Bench,  and  the  Marshalsea. 
Some  of  the  earthenware  pots  who  tried  to 
go  down-stream  with  the  iron  pots  eventu- 
ally found  themselves  at  Newgate  or  at 
Tyburn.  An  admirable  picture  of  the  gam- 
bling set  may  be  found  in  the  earlier  part  of 
"The  Virginians,"  and,  for  those  who  prefer 
history  at  first  hand,  in  the  letters  of  George 
Selwyn  and  Horace  Walpole. 

The  western  boundary  of  Mayfair  is  Hyde 
Park.  This  was  the  scene  of  many  duels. 
The  Duke  of  Graf  ton  went  out  in  1685,  and 
killed  the  Hon.  John  Talbot;  and  in  the 
eighteenth  century  John  Wilkes,  Lord  Thurs- 


206    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

ton,  Charles  James  Fox,  Colonel  Fullerton, 
and  many  others  took  the  ground.  In  1712 
the  Duke  of  Hamilton  met  Lord  Mohun 
(Charles,  not  Henry,  as  Thackeray  chris- 
tened him) .  They  fought  near  Price's  Lodge 
just  before  sunset,  and  both  died  on  the 
ground.  The  Duke  killed  his  antagonist,  but 
there  is  some  doubt  as  to  how  the  Duke  was 
killed.  It  was  said  at  the  time  that  Colonel 
Macartney,  Mohun's  second,  came  up  after 
Mohun  fell  and  stabbed  the  Duke  in  the 
back.  Thackeray  was  wrong  in  saying  in 
"Esmond,"  where  the  story  of  the  duel  is 
recorded  at  length,  that  Macartney  fled  and 
never  returned  to  England;  for  though  he 
fled,  after  four  years  he  returned,  was  tried 
by  the  Court  of  King's  Bench,  and  acquitted. 
Readers  of  "Esmond"  will  remember  that 
the  duel,  which  arose  out  of  a  quarrel  con- 
cerning property,  took  place  on  the  eve  of 
the  marriage  of  the  Duke  to  Beatrix  Castle- 
wood.  Lord  Mohun  was  a  notorious  char- 
acter. In  earlier  days  he  had  been  con- 
cerned with  Lord  Warwick,  the  husband  of 
the  countess  whom  Addison  married,  in  the 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     207 

murder  of  Will  Mountford  the  comedian, 
and  for  this  offence  the  noblemen  were  tried 
by  their  peers  and  acquitted.  Thackeray 
makes  Mohun  kill  Lord  Castlewood  in  a 
duel  in  Leicester  Fields,  now  Leicester  Square, 
where,  on  the  north  side,  stood  Leicester 
House,  built  early  in  the  seventeenth  century 
by  the  then  Earl  of  Leicester.  Leicester 
House  was  purchased  for  George  II.  when 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  it  was  not  until  1766 
that  it  ceased  to  be  a  royal  residence.  The 
Empire  Theatre  now  occupies  the  site  of 
the  mansion.  A  third  spot  favoured  by 
duellists  was  the  ground  behind  Montague 
House,  and  here  the  father  of  Barry  Lyndon 
pinked  Count  Tiercelin. 

Much  of  the  action  of  "Esmond"  took 
place  in  Kensington.  "In  those  days,"  Lady 
Ritchie,  the  author  of  the  charming  "Old 
Kensington,"  says,  "the  hawthorn  spread 
across  the  fields  and  market-gardens  that  lay 
between  Kensington  and  the  river.  Lanes 
ran  to  Chelsea,  to  Fulham,  to  North  End, 
where  Richardson  once  lived  and  wrote  in 
his  garden-house.  The  mist  of  the  great 


208    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

city  hid  the  horizon  and  dulled  the  sound  of 
the  advancing  multitude;  but  close  at  hand 
.  .  .  were  country  corners  untouched  —  blos- 
soms instead  of  bricks  in  spring-time,  summer 
shade  in  summer."  When  the  father  of 
Rachel,  Lady  Castlewood,  died  and  left  her 
some  three  thousand  pounds,  with  this  little 
fortune  she  was  enabled,  when  her  daughter's 
turn  came  as  Maid  of  Honour  at  Court,  to 
come  to  London,  where  she  took  a  small, 
genteel  house  at  Kensington  Square.  This 
was  adjacent  to  the  Court.  The  red-brick 
Kensington  Palace,  built  by  William  and 
Mary,  was  the  social  headquarters  of  the 
Court,  though  State  ceremonies  still  took 
place  at  St.  James's  Palace,  and  in  summer 
Majesty  migrated  to  Hampton  Court  or 
Windsor. 

Kensington  Square  was  commenced  in  the 
reign  of  James  II.,  and  was  finished  towards 
the  close  of  that  of  William.  In  the  time  of 
Queen  Anne  and  the  first  Georges  it  was  very 
fashionable;  and,  owing  to  its  proximity  to 
the  Court,  lodgings  were  so  much  in  demand 
that  an  ambassador,  a  bishop,  and  a  physi- 


H  SH 

0  _ 

S  i 

§  § 

1  2 

*  2 

^  ^ 
o 


"Esmond"  and  " Virginians"    209 

cian  occupied  apartments  in  the  same  house. 
Talleyrand  lived  there,  and  Mrs.  Scurlock, 
whom  Steele  married,  and  Addison  before 
his  grand,  miserable  marriage  with  the 
chatelaine  of  Holland  House;  while  Nos.  10 
and  11  were  reserved  for  the  Maids  of 
Honour  who  could  not  be  housed  at  the 
palace. 

When  Lady  Castle  wood  moved  to  Ken- 
sington, Esmond,  so  as  to  be  near  his  "dear 
lady,"  took  lodgings  at  Knightsbridge  (in 
those  days  spelt  Knyghtbrigg),  then  a  hamlet 
in  the  parishes  of  Chelsea,  Kensington,  and 
St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  "between  Lon- 
don and  Kensington,  and  overlooking  the 
gardens."  It  was  some  distance  from  Lon- 
don, and  so  late  as  1740  the  Bristol  mail  was 
robbed  there.  The  house  in  Kensington 
Square  had  been  in  the  early  years  of  the 
eighteenth  century  the  residence  of  the 
Marquis  of  Powis,  who  accompanied  James 
II.  into  exile,  and  by  the  grateful  monarch 
was  created  Duke  of  Powis,  a  title  now 
extinct.  It  then  had  stabling  and  a  cottage 
attached  to  it.  Upon  the  site  of  the  cottage 


210    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

was  built  the  house  in  Young  Street,  "Our 
Street,"  where  Thackeray  lived  from  1846 
to  1853,  and  where  he  wrote  "Vanity  Fair," 
"Pendennis,"  and  "Esmond."  The  old 
"Greyhound,"  since  rebuilt,  with  its  memo- 
ries of  Pope,  Addison,  and  Macaulay,  was 
at  the  corner  opposite.  It  was  from  here 
that  on  an  eventful  night  Esmond  watched 
the  door  of  Lady  Castlewood's  residence  lest 
the  Prince  should  escape  from  it.  It  was  at 
the  "King's  Arms,"  Kensington,  that  Es- 
mond enrolled  a  little  army  of  gentlemen  to 
enforce  the  Pretender's  claim  to  the  throne. 
They  assembled,  in  parties  of  two  and  three, 
to  the  number  of  fifty-three,  and  his  Grace 
the  Duke  of  Ormonde  was  to  take  command. 
But  when  the  moment  for  action  came  the 
Prince  was  absent  at  Castlewood  paying 
dishonourable  court  to  Beatrix.  So,  accord- 
ing to  Thackeray,  ended  the  conspiracy 
which  might  have  altered  the  history  of 
England  by  restoring  the  Stuarts  to  the 
throne. 

It   was   to  Lady   Castlewood's   that   the 
Pretender  came  incognito,   and  from  there 


"Esmond"  and  "Virginians"    211 

was  taken  to  see  his  sister  the  Queen,  when 
she  and  her  favourite  lady-in-waiting  were 
taking  the  air  in  the  cedar-walk  behind  the 
new  banqueting-hall;  and  it  was  there  that 
Esmond  warned  the  Prince  that  if  his  Royal 
Highness  harboured  thoughts  of  dishonour 
towards  Beatrix,  his  faithful  servant  would 
call  in  the  watchman  and  give  him  up.  The 
windows  of  the  house  were  open  both  towards 
the  gardens  and  the  square;  in  the  square 
was  the  watchman,  who  would  be  glad  to 
secure  the  five  hundred  pounds  set  on  the 
Pretender's  head,  and  in  the  gardens  was 
the  palace  where  the  Prince  might  hope  to 
reign.  His  Royal  Highness  hesitated,  and 
then  pledged  his  word.  He  broke  faith  and 
followed  Beatrix  to  Castlewood,  and  by  so 
doing  lost  a  throne.  It  was  also  at  the  house 
in  Kensington  Square  that  the  Duke  of 
Hamilton  wooed  and  won  Beatrix;  and  it 
was  in  the  drawing-room  that  he  objected 
to  Esmond,  whom  he  believed  to  be  a 
bastard,  giving  his  future  wife  a  grand 
parure  of  diamonds  as  a  wedding-gift.  This 
led  up  to  one  of  the  greatest  scenes  in 


212    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

the  book  —  a  scene  which  shows  Thack- 
eray's genius  at  its  best  —  when  Lady 
Castlewood,  pale,  trembling,  and  indignant, 
tells  the  story  of  the  noble  gentleman's 
renunciation : 

"My  daughter  may  receive  presents  from 
the  head  of  our  house;  my  daughter  may 
thankfully  take  kindness  from  her  father's, 
her  mother's,  her  brother's  dearest  friend; 
and  be  grateful  for  one  more  benefit  besides 
the  thousands  that  we  owe  him.  What  is  a 
string  of  diamonds  compared  to  that  affec- 
tion he  has  given  us  —  our  dearest  preserver 
and  benefactor?  We  owe  him,  not  only 
Frank's  life,  but  our  all  —  yes,  our  all.  The 
title  we  bear  is  his,  if  he  would  claim  it. 
'T  is  we  who  have  no  right  to  our  name; 
not  he,  that's  too  great  for  it.  He  sacrificed 
his  name  at  my  dying  lord's  bedside  —  sacri- 
ficed it  to  my  orphan  children;  gave  up  rank 
and  honour  because  he  loved  us  so  nobly. 
His  father  was  Viscount  of  Castlewood  and 
Marquis  of  Esmond  before  him;  and  he  is 
his  father's  lawful  son  and  true  heir,  and 
we  are  the  recipients  of  his  bounty,  and  he 


" Esmond"  and  "Virginians"     213 

the  chief  of  a  house  that's  as  old  as  your 
own.  And  if  he  is  content  to  forego  his 
name  that  my  child  may  bear  it,  we  love 
him  and  honour  him  and  bless  him,  under 
whatever  name  he  bears." 


CHAPTER    IX 

Some  Editions  of  Thackeray 

BEFORE  the  dawn  of  the  nineteenth 
century  when  newspapers  were  few 
and  magazines  practically  unknown,  the 
young  man  usually  began  his  literary  career 
by  issuing  a  volume  containing  the  first 
fruits  of  his  work.  Since  then,  although  now 
and  again  a  venturesome  author  may  in  the 
same  way  make  a  bid  for  fame,  it  has  been 
more  usual  for  the  aspirant  to  start  as  a  con- 
tributor to  some  periodical.  It  was  in  this 
way  that  Thackeray  commenced  author. 
When  he  was  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge, 
he  wrote  for  two  little  papers  edited  and 
written  by  undergraduates:  the  first  was 
The  Snob,  A  Literary  and  Scientific  Journal 
NOT  Conducted  by  Members  of  the  University, 
which  was  published  weekly,  from  April  9 
to  June  18,  1829;  and  the  second,  The 


BY    MR.     M.    A.    TITMARSH. 


LONlMlX: 

CHAPMAN    AND    HALL. 

MIHVrXI.VIII. 


REDUCED    FACSIMILE    OF    THE    COVER    TO    THE    FIRST 
EDITION    OF    "OUR    STREET" 

From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Some  Editions  of  Thackeray    215 

Gownsman  (formerly  called  The  Snob)  A 
Literary  and  Scientific  Journal  now  Con- 
ducted by  Members  of  the  University,  which 
ran  from  November  9,  1829,  to  February  25, 
1830.  The  Snob  was  printed  on  papers  of 
different  colours;  and  Nos.  1  to  6  were 
marked  5th  edition,  Nos.  2  and  9  3rd  edition, 
Nos.  3,  4,  5,  7,  4th  edition,  and  Nos.  8,  10, 11, 
2nd  edition.  The  Gownsman  was  printed 
on  white  paper,  and  the  editor  of  that  little 
periodical  abandoned  the  feeble  humour  of 
the  editor  of  the  earlier  one  and  did  not 
mark  the  various  issues  as  being  of  any  partic- 
ular edition.  To  this  paper  Thackeray  con- 
tributed the  often  reprinted  burlesque,  "Tim- 
buctoo,"  and  also  a  series  of  rather  poor  imi- 
tations of  Theodore  Hook's  "Ramsbottom 
Papers,"  as  well  as  a  parody  of  Haynes 
Baily's  "I'd  be  a  Butterfly."  To  The 
Gownsman,  when  the  numbers  were  bound 
up  in  book  form,  he  contributed  a  dedication 
to  the  Proctors :  — 

"Whose  taste  it  is  our  privilege  to  follow, 
Whose  virtue  it  is  our  duty  to  imitate, 
And  whose  business  it  is  our  interest  to  avoid." 


2i 6    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Though  Thackeray's  contributions  to  The 
Snob  and  The  Gownsman  have  little  or  no 
literary  value  and  are  interesting  only  as 
curiosities,  still  the  papers  are  much  sought 
after  by  collectors,  and  a  copy  of  the  two 
bound  together  realised,  at  an  auction  sale 
a  few  years  ago,  the  fancy  price  of  £132. 
After  Thackeray  left  the  University,  his 
thoughts  turned  to  literature,  and  in  a  more 
or  less  amateurish  spirit  he  became  first  a 
contributor  and  then  editor  and  proprietor 
of  a  weekly  paper  grandiloquently  called 
The  National  Standard  and  Journal  of  Litera- 
ture, Science,  Music,  Theatricals,  and  the 
Fine  Arts,  which  name  was  subsequently 
altered  to  The  National  Standard  and  Literary 
Representative.  To  this  Thackeray  contrib- 
uted many  articles,  sketches,  poems,  and 
translations,  not  all  of  which  have  yet  been 
identified,  though  many  of  them  have  been 
re-printed  in  Mr.  W.  T.  Spencer's  volume. 
Copies  of  this  newspaper  rarely  come  into 
the  market,  and  the  same  may  be  said  of 
another  newspaper  with  which  he  was  sub- 
sequently connected,  The  Constitutional  and 


Some  Editions  of  Thackeray    217 

Public  Ledger,  to  which  he  contributed  Paris 
correspondence  which  may  also  be  read  by 
the  curious  in  Mr.  Spencer's  volume. 

More  interesting  than  these,  and  at  least 
as  valuable  from  the  pecuniary  point  of  view, 
are  the  first  books  with  which  Thackeray 
was  connected.  In  1836  he  was  in  Paris  and 
there  saw  a  ballet  entitled  "Flore  et  Zephyr." 
This  provided  him  with  a  subject  for  a  series 
of  caricatures  which  he  published  hi  book 
form  through  Mitchell's  library  in  London, 
and  Rittner  and  Goupil  in  Paris.  The  book 
bore  the  title:  "Flore  et  Zephyr,  Ballet 
Mythologique  Dedie  a  (Sketch  of  Flore) 
par  Theophile  Wagstaffe." 

This  little  brochure,  which  consisted  of 
eight  plates  and  wrapper  with  vignette, 
lithographed  by  Edward  Morton,  is  perhaps 
the  rarest  of  all  Thackeray's  earliest  works, 
and  in  1896  a  copy  with  the  plates  backed 
with  linen  and  one  wrapper  missing,  was  sold 
for  £55.  Two  other  little  books,  "King 
Glumpus"  and  "The  Exquisites,"  privately 
printed  respectively  in  1837  and  1839,  were 
for  many  years  attributed  to  Thackeray. 


2 1 8    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

It  has  since  transpired,  however,  that  John 
Borrow  was  responsible  for  the  letterpress 
and  that  Thackeray  contributed  only  the 
illustrations,  of  which  there  are  three  in 
"King  Glumpus"  and  four  in  "The  Exquis- 
ites." Copies  of  these  are  very  scarce,  and 
the  market  price  of  "King  Glumpus"  seems 
to  be  about  £150,  while  a  copy  of  "The 
Exquisites"  with  coloured  plates  (the  only 
known  copy)  realised  £85,  and  another  with 
uncoloured  plates  £58.  At  least  as  rare  as 
these  is  the  little  volume,  published  by 
Carey  and  Hart,  of  Philadelphia,  1838,  con- 
taining "The  Yellowplush  Correspondence," 
though  what  its  money  value  is  it  is  impos- 
sible to  say,  since  no  copy  has  been  offered 
for  sale  for  many  years.  It  was  an  unauth- 
orised edition,  published  two  years  before 
the  "Correspondence"  was  re-printed  in 
England.  There  is  one  point  to  note  about 
the  volume,  and  that  is  that  the  first  page 
is  numbered  13  in  all  known  copies;  the  as- 
sumption being  that  it  was  intended  to  in- 
troduce the  "Correspondence"  with  a  pref- 
ace. Another  early  edition  was  that  issued 


TITMARSK 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  TITLE  PAGE  TO  THE  FIRST 
EDITION  OF  "THE  HISTORY  OF  SAMUEL  TITMARSH 
&  THE  GREAT  HOGGARTY  DIAMOND" 

From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Some  Editions  of  Thackeray    2 1 9 

in  1839  containing  the  "Reminiscences  of 
Major  Gahagan"  which  had  first  appeared 
in  the  New  Monthly  Magazine.  Of  this,  no 
copy  is  known  to  exist,  but  Mr.  Frederick  S. 
Dickson  gives  it  a  place  in  his  Bibliography, 
because  in  the  preface  to  "Comic  Tales  and 
Sketches"  the  following  passage  appears:  — 
"'Mr.  Yellowplush's  Memoirs'  .  .  .  exclu- 
sively popular  in  America,  where  they  have 
been  re-printed  more  than  once  with  *  Major 
Gahagan's  Reminiscences'  from  the  New 
Monthly  Magazine  and  received  by  our  Ameri- 
can brethren  with  similar  piratical  honours." 
The  first  book  of  Thackeray's  published 
under  his  own  auspices  was  "The  Paris  Sketch 
Book"  (1840),  a  collection  of  tales  and  articles 
many  of  which  had  already  appeared  in 
the  reviews  and  magazines;  and  in  the  same 
year  appeared  his  essay  "On  the  Genius  of 
George  Cruikshank,"  published  with  nu- 
merous illustrations  of  his  works  from  the 
Westminster  Review.  In  1841  was  issued  in 
a  grey  pictorial  cover  "The  Second  Funeral 
of  Napoleon  in  Three  Letters  to  Miss  Smith 
of  London.  And  the  Chronicle  of  the  Drum." 


220    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

This  book  was  a  great  failure  as  a  publishing 
speculation,  as  the  author's  correspondence 
shows,  and  copies  of  it  are  so  very  rarely  to 
be  met  with  that  a  good  example  recently 
changed  hands  at  £40.  The  first  edition  was 
reprinted  in  facsimile  in  1896,  and  distributed 
as  a  gift  by  certain  Philadelphian  and  Chica- 
goan  Sunday  newspapers.  In  the  same  year 
as  "The  Second  Funeral  of  Napoleon"  ap- 
peared "Comic  Tales  and  Sketches,"  in 
which  were  printed  the  "Yellowplush  Cor- 
respondence" and  "Major  Gahagan,"  with 
new  illustrations  taking  the  place  of  those 
that  had  accompanied  the  original  issue  of 
this  series  in  the  magazines. 

Thackeray's  next  publications  in  book  form 
were  "The  Irish  Sketch  Book"  (1843),  and 
"Notes  of  a  Journey  from  Cornhill  to  Grand 
Cairo."  The  latter  appeared  in  1846,  the 
year  in  which  was  published  the  first  of  the 
Christmas-Books,  "Mrs.  Perkins's  Ball," 
which  was  followed  in  successive  years  by 
"Our  Street,"  "Dr.  Birch  and  his  Young 
Friends,"  "Rebecca  and  Rowena"  (with 
illustrations  by  Richard  Doyle)  and  "The, 


Some  Editions  of  Thackeray    221 

Kickleburys  on  the  Rhine"  in  1850.  A 
second  edition  of  "The  Kickleburys  on  the 
Rhine"  was  called  for  early  in  1851,  and  it 
is  more  valuable  than  the  original  issue  be- 
cause it  contains  the  famous  preface,  "An 
Essay  to  Thunder  and  Small  Beer,"  which 
was  a  reply  to  the  Times  criticism  of  the 
little  book. 

It  was  in  January,  1847,  that  the  first 
monthly  part  of  "Vanity  Fair"  appeared  in 
the  wellknown  yellow  pictorial  wrapper, 
and  month  by  month  the  publication  was 
continued  until  the  double  number  brought 
it  to  a  close  in  July,  1848,  immediately  after 
which  the  novel  was  reissued  in  book  form. 
The  issue  in  parts  is,  of  course,  the  most 
valuable  of  all  editions  and  a  perfect  copy 
recently  fetched  £100.  This,  like  the  first 
edition,  contains  a  wood-cut  of  the  Marquis 
of  Steyne,  which  was  deleted  or  suppressed  in 
subsequent  re-issues  of  the  book  during  the 
lifetime  of  the  author.  The  reason  for  the 
absence  of  this  wood-cut  has  never  been 
agreed  upon  by  the  bibliographers,  but  it  is 
usually  asserted  that  the  plate  was  removed 


222    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

because  of  the  likeness  of  the  fictitious  char- 
acter to  a  certain  eminently  disreputable 
nobleman  not  long  deceased. 

"Pendemris,"  "TheNewcomes,"  and  "The 
Virginians"  also  appeared  in  monthly  parts, 
and  these  in  good  condition  are  not  easily 
obtainable.  These  novels,  too,  were  im- 
mediately after  their  issue  in  parts  published 
in  book  form  in  England  and  America. 
"Esmond,"  however,  appeared  for  the  first 
time  in  the  three-volume  edition,  and  the 
original  issue  was  printed  in  the  obsolete 
type  of  the  reign  of  Queen  Anne. 

As  Thackeray's  fame  advanced,  his  mis- 
cellanies attracted  more  and  more  attention, 
especially  in  America.  In  1846  "Jeames's 
Diary"  was  published  in  New  York,  Phila- 
delphia, and  Baltimore,  and  in  1848  "The 
Great  Hoggarty  Diamond"  was  brought 
out  by  Harpers  in  New  York.  Thackeray 
himself,  in  the  same  year,  issued  in  London, 
"The  Snobs  of  England"  from  Punch,  under 
the  title  of  "The  Book  of  Snobs;"  omitting, 
however,  certain  chapters  because,  so  the 
Author's  note  runs,  "on  re-perusing  these 


$ 

& 


\\\    .MR.  M.  A,  TliMARSH.  ^ 

WITH    SIXTEEN    ILLUSTRATIONS    BY    THE   -AUTHOR 
,.»N'DON:  CHAPMAN  <t  IIAIJ,.  ISC..  STRANP. 


.  f  •  - 


1849; 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  COVER  TO  THE  FIRST 
EDITION  OF  "DOCTOR  BIRCH  AND  HIS  YOUNG 

FRIENDS  " 
From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Some  Editions  of  Thackeray    223 

papers,  I  have  found  them  so  stupid,  so 
personal,  so  snobbish,  in  a  word."  "The 
Great  Hoggarty  Diamond"  made  its  first 
official  appearance  in  book  form,  revised  by 
the  author,  and  published  by  Messrs.  Brad- 
bury and  Evans,  in  1849.  It  contained  nine 
plates,  and  has  the  additional  adornment  of 
a  pictorial  title-page,  all  printed  for  the  first 
time. 

The  first  collection  of  Thackeray's  "Mis- 
cellanies" was  made  by  Baron  Tauchnitz  in 
his  collection  of  "British  Authors."  The 
first  volume  was  issued  in  1849,  the  eighth 
and  last,  in  1857.  Thackeray's  fame  was 
even  greater  in  America  than  in  England, 
and  when  it  was  announced  that  he  would 
visit  the  United  States  as  a  lecturer,  Messrs. 
Applet  on  and  Company  seized  the  opportu- 
nity to  issue  a  collection  of  his  works  during 
1852  and  1853.  To  the  last  of  these  vol- 
umes "Mr.  Brown's  Letters  to  a  Young  Man 
about  Town,"  Thackeray  contributed  a  pref- 
ace. It  was  this  collection  of  reprints  that 
formed  the  basis  of  the  first  authorised  col- 
lection of  "Miscellanies"  published  by  Brad- 


224    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

bury  and  Evans,  from  1855  to  1857.  These 
were  issued  in  yellow  paper  covers  and  were 
also  collected  and  bound  up  in  four  volumes. 
In  these,  "Barry  Lyndon"  was  first  re- 
printed and  the  satire  was  revised  by  the 
author,  who  rarely  reissued  any  of  his  works 
without  carefully  re-reading  and  making 
such  changes  as  seemed  to  him  advisable. 


CHAPTER    X 

Thackeray  and  Dickens 

THE  first  meeting  of  these  two  great 
writers  took  place  early  in  1836. 
"Pickwick"  was  being  published  in  monthly 
parts,  and  Robert  Seymour,  who  invented 
the  original  design  of  Mr.  Pickwick,  after 
having  completed  the  drawings  for  the  first 
two  or  three  numbers,  had  committed  sui- 
cide. Another  artist  was  wanted  imme- 
diately, and  Thackeray  volunteered  for  the 
post,  but  his  offer  was  declined,  as  already 
described. 

Thackeray  was  never  tired  of  paying 
tribute,  private  and  public,  to  the  works 
of  his  contemporaries.  He  was  outspoken 
in  praise  of  Cruikshank  and  Leech,  who, 
in  some  measure,  might  be  regarded  as  his 
rivals  in  comic  portraiture.  "What  would 
Punch  be  without  Leech's  pictures?"  he 
wrote  in  an  article  which  not  unnaturally 


226    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

annoyed  the  other  contributors.  And  in 
1863,  a  few  months  before  his  death,  when 
Cruikshank  was  exhibiting  his  works,  anx- 
ious to  render  what  help  he  could  to  an  old 
friend,  "kind  Thackeray  came  with  his 
grave  face,  and  looked  through  the  little 
gallery,  and  went  off  to  write  one  of  his 
charming  essays,"  which  duly  appeared  in 
the  Times- 

He  wrote  with  appreciation,  not  too 
strictly  critical,  of  Macaulay  and  Washing- 
ton Irving;  of  Hood  (whose  "Song  of  the 
Shirt"  he  pronounced  the  finest  lyric  ever 
written),  of  Lever,  and  of  Charlotte  Bronte. 
Even  Bulwer  Lytton,  whom  with  caustic 
humour  he  had  attacked  in  "The  Yellowplush 
Papers,"  he  praised  for  the  example  he 
set  to  other  authors  by  being  "thoroughly 
literate;"  and,  speaking  at  the  Royal  Lit- 
erary Fund  dinner  in  1852,  he  eulogised 
Disraeli,  whose  "Coningsby"  he  had  re- 
viewed in  the  Pictorial  Times,  and  after- 
wards had  so  amusingly  parodied  in  Punch  — 
a  parody  which  the  victim  amply  avenged, 
when  in  "Endymion"  he  wrote  about  "Sainte- 


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REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  COVER  TO  THE  FIRST 

EDITION  OF  "REBECCA  AND  ROWENA  " 
From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Thackeray  and  Dickens      227 

Barbe"  and  "Topsy-Turvy"  (Thackeray 
and  "Vanity  Fair").  It  is  not  generally 
known  that  Thackeray  wanted  to  parody 
both  Dickens  and  himself,  but  the  pro- 
prietors of  Punch  declined  to  accept  a 
parody  of  Dickens,  and  so  both  skits  re- 
mained unwritten.  When  Thackeray,  ill 
in  bed,  read  "The  Idylls  of  the  King," 
he  wrote  to  the  poet:  "Oh!  I  must  write 
to  him  now  for  this  pleasure,  this  delight, 
this  splendour  of  happiness  which  I  have 
been  enjoying;"  and  when  Tennyson's 
"Grandmother"  appeared  in  Once  a  Week: 
"I  wish  I  could  have  got  that  poem  for 
the  Cornhill,  I  would  have  paid  fifty  pounds 
for  it,"  the  great  novelist  exclaimed:  "But 
I  would  have  given  five  hundred  pounds 
to  have  been  able  to  write  it."  He  rever- 
enced "the  great  old  Goethe,"  and  his 
enthusiasm  was  thoroughly  aroused  by  the 
works  of  Dumas. 

Though  Thackeray  thought  Dumas  greater 
than  Scott,  yet  for  the  latter  he  felt  much 
admiration  and  even  reverence.  When  a 
popular  novelist  one  day  justified  himself 


228    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

for  something  he  had  written  by  urging 
that  Scott  had  written  it  also,  Thackeray 
replied:  "I  do  not  think  that  it  becomes 
either  you  or  me  to  speak  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott  as  if  we  were  his  equals.  Such  men  as 
you  or  I  should  take  off  our  hats  at  the 
very  mention  of  his  name." 

Thackeray  was  never  so  happy  as  when 
he  could  pay  a  compliment  to  his  friends 
in  a  book.  "The  young  Aga  came  for  a 
pair  of  shoes;  his  contortions  were  so  de- 
lightful as  he  tried  them  on  that  I  remained 
with  great  pleasure,  wishing  for  Leech  to 
be  at  hand  to  sketch  his  lordship  and  his 
fat  mamma,  who  sat  on  the  counter,"  he 
wrote  in  "From  Cornhill  to  Grand  Cairo." 
And  in  the  same  volume,  a  little  further 
on:  "You  can't  put  down  in  prose  that 
delicious  episode  of  natural  poetry"  ("The 
Bay  of  Glaucus");  "it  ought  to  be  done 
in  a  symphony,  full  of  sweet  strains  of  clear 
iambics,  such  as  Milnes  knows  how  to  write." 
In  one  of  his  latest  novels,  "The  Adventures 
of  Philip,"  he  concluded  a  chapter:  "There 
was  a  pretty  group  for  the  children  to  see, 


Thackeray  and  Dickens      229 

and  Mr.  Walker  to  draw."  In  posthumous 
editions,  however,  this  has  been  altered  to 
"for  an  artist  to  draw.'* 

Above  all  his  contemporaries  Thackeray 
delighted  to  honour  Dickens,  and  he  never 
lost  an  opportunity  of  paying  graceful  trib- 
ute in  his  books  or  in  his  lectures;  while 
his  private  correspondence  is  /studded  with 
remarks  testifying  to  his  sincere  appreci- 
ation of  his  great  rival's  works.  "  Get '  David 
Copperfield,'  by  jingo,  it 's  beautiful;  it 
beats  the  yellow  chap  of  this  month  (*Pen- 
dennis')  hollow:"  and  writing  of  the  same 
book  in  Punch,  he  said:  "How  beautiful  it  is, 
how  charmingly  fresh  and  simple!  In  those 
admirable  touches  of  tender  humour  —  and 
I  shall  call  humour,  Bob,  a  mixture  of  love 
and  wit  —  who  can  equal  this  great  genius? 
There  are  little  words  and  phrases  in  his 
book  which  are  like  personal  benefits  to 
the  reader."  Of  "A  Christmas  Carol"  he 
wrote:  "It  seems  to  me  a  national  benefit, 
and  to  every  man  or  woman  who  reads  it 
a  personal  kindness;"  and  he  referred  to 
"The  Battle  of  Life  "  and  the  other  Christ- 


230    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

mas  stories  as  "these  charming  little  books 
of  Mr.  Dickens's  which  are  chorals  for 
Christmas  executed  in  prose." 

In  the  lecture  on  "Charity  and  Humour," 
which  Thackeray  delivered  in  1855  for  a  chari- 
table purpose,  he  introduced  the  following 
story  against  himself.  "All  children  ought 
to  love  him"  [Dickens];  "I  know  two  that 
do,  and  read  his  books  ten  times  for  once  they 
peruse  the  dismal  preachments  of  their 
father.  I  know  one  who,  when  she  is  happy, 
reads  'Nicholas  Nickelby;'  when  she  is  un- 
happy, reads  'Nicholas  Nickleby;'  when  she 
is  tired  reads  'Nicholas  Nickleby;'  when 
she  is  in  bed,  reads  'Nicholas  Nickleby;' 
when  she  has  nothing  to  do,  reads  'Nicholas 
Nickleby;'  and  when  she  has  finished  the 
book,  reads  'Nicholas  Nickleby'  again.  This 
candid  young  critic,  at  ten  years  of  age, 
said,  'I  like  Mr.  Dickens's  books  better 
than  your  books,  papa,'  and  frequently 
expressed  her  desire  that  the  latter  author 
should  write  a  book  like  one  of  Mr.  Dickens 's 
books.  Who  can?"  This  charming  passage 
drew  an  acknowledgment  from  Dickens. 


ROSE   AND    ri!K    UI.N<; 

OR,    TIIK 

HISTOKI  OF  PBINCK  GIOLIO  AND  PIJN^K  liULB 

£  fm-Siit  |}Bitfomhne  for  drtat  Bub  Sms'i  ^ 


BY  MR.  M.  A.  T1TMAHSH, 

Aathor  c.'  •«  Th«  Kkfctcburn  ™  tbo  Rhino."  "  Mrs.  Perkiaa'g  BaU,"  Ac.  *c. 

•:f»N  :    SMITH,  ELDER,  AND  CO.,  65,  COBNHIT.L 

MMX 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  COVER  TO  THE  FIRST 
EDITION  OF  "THE  ROSE  AND  THE  RING" 

From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Thackeray  and  Dickens       231 

"I  have  read  in  the  Times  to-day  an  ac- 
count of  your  last  night's  lecture,"  he  wrote 
to  Thackeray,  "and  cannot  refrain  from 
assuring  you  in  all  truth  and  earnestness 
that  I  am  profoundly  touched  by  your 
generous  reference  to  me.  I  do  not  know 
how  to  tell  you  what  a  glow  it  spread  over 
my  heart.  Out  of  its  fulness  I  do  entreat 
you  to  believe  that  I  shall  never  forget 
your  words  of  commendation.  If  you 
could  wholly  know  at  once  how  you  have 
moved  me,  and  how  you  have  animated 
me,  you  would  be  the  happier,  I  am  very 
certain." 

Again,  when  Thackeray  read  the  number 
of  "Dombey  and  Son"  containing  the  de- 
scription of  the  death  of  Paul,  he  put  it  in 
his  pocket,  went  to  the  Punch  Office,  and 
flung  it  down  before  Mark  Lemon.  "There's 
no  writing  against  this,"  he  exclaimed  ex- 
citedly. "One  hasn't  an  atom  of  chance; 
it 's  stupendous."  And  this,  too,  when 
"Vanity  Fair"  was  in  course  of  publication, 
and  the  author  of  that  "little  book"  was 
also  describing  a  death  scene:  "No  more 


23 2    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

firing  was  heard  at  Brussels  —  the  pursuit 
rolled  miles  away.  The  darkness  came 
down  on  the  field  and  city,  and  Amelia  was 
praying  for  George,  who  was  lying  on  his 
face,  dead,  with  a  bullet  through  his  heart." 
And  nowadays,  in  spite  of  Thackeray's 
praise,  and  Lord  Jeffrey's  —  "There  has 
been  nothing  in  literature  like  the  actual 
dying  of  that  sweet  Paul,"  this  death-bed 
scene  is  regarded  as  typical  of  Dickens  at 
his  worst,  as  "the  kind  of  thing  that  appears 
in  Sunday-school  books  about  the  virtuous 
little  boy  that  died!" 

Thackeray,  however,  was  too  keen  a 
critic  unduly  to  depreciate  his  own  writings. 

"Have  you  read  Dickens?  Oh!  it  is 
charming!  brave  Dickens!"  he  wrote  to 
Mrs.  Brookfield.  "It  has  some  of  his  very 
prettiest  touches,  those  inimitable  touches, 
which  make  such  a  great  man  of  him;  and 
the  reading  of  the  book  has  done  another 
author  a  great  deal  of  good.  In  the  first 
place,  it  pleases  the  other  author  to  see  that 
Dickens,  who  has  long  left  off  alluding  to 
the  author's  works,  has  been  copying  the 


Thackeray  and  Dickens       233 

O.  A.,  and  greatly  simplifying  his  style, 
and  overcoming  the  use  of  fine  words.  By 
this  the  public  will  be  the  gainer,  and  *  David 
Copperfield'  will  be  improved  by  taking 
a  lesson  from  '  Vanity  Fair.'  Secondly,  it 
has  put  me  on  my  mettle,  for  ah!  madame, 
all  the  mettle  was  out  of  me,  and  I  have 
been  dreadfully  and  curiously  cast  down 
this  month  past.  I  say,  secondly,  it 
has  put  me  on  my  mettle,  and  made 
me  feel  that  I  must  do  something:  that 
I  have  fame,  and  name,  and  family,  to 
support." 

Indeed,  Thackeray  was  constrained  to 
admit  that  Dickens  was  not  a  deep  thinker, 
but,  he  said,  "he  has  a  clear  and  a  bright- 
eyed  intelligence,  which  is  better  than  phi- 
losophy. I  think  he  is  equal  to  Fielding 
and  Smollett  —  at  any  rate  to  Smollett. 
He  is  not  such  a  scholar  as  Fielding  was." 
This,  then,  was  the  greatest  difference  be- 
tween them:  other  things  being  equal, 
Thackeray's  literary  culture  was  far  wider. 
He  was  thereby  enabled  thoroughly  to 
appreciate  the  many  beauties  of  Dickens's 


?34    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

work.  The  latter,  unfortunately,  was  not 
a  discerning  critic  of  writing  other  than 
that  of  his  own  kind,  and  read  little  and 
thought  less  of  the  master  stylist  of  his 
day.  "He"  [Dickens]  "can't  forgive  me 
for  my  success  with  '  Vanity  Fair '  —  as  if 
there  were  not  room  in  the  world  for  both 
of  us,"  Thackeray  wrote. 

Regarded  from  almost  any  point  of  view 
these  two  great  men  present  a  striking  con- 
trast. Dickens  at  twenty-five  was  famous 
as  the  author  of  "Sketches  by  Boz"  and 
"Pickwick,"  and  within  the  next  ten  years 
had  published  "Oliver  Twist,"  "Nicholas 
Nickleby,"  "the  Old  CuriositylShop,"  "Bar- 
naby  Rudge,"  "Martin  Chuzzlewit,"  and 
the  Christmas  books.  Thackeray,  who  was 
a  year  older,  in  his  twenty-fifth  year,  en- 
tirely unknown,  contributed  a  short  story 
entitled  "The  Professor"  to  Bentley's  Mis- 
cellany, then  under  the  editorship  of  Dickens, 
and  in  the  pages  of  which  "Oliver  Twist" 
was  appearing  as  a  serial.  In  his  thirty- 
seventh  year  he  made  his  first  serious  bid 
for  fame  with  "Vanity  Fair,"  which,  after 


Jfn.  I.] 


JANUARY. 


[1'r.ifE  U 


PEN  AND  PENCIL    SKETCHES    OF    ENGLISH    SOCIETY. 


BY    W.    M.    THACKERAY. 

i  hr  lt:>b  Jkftrh  Book  :"  "JourMY  from  Coinkill  to  Grind  C»iro:"  of  "  Je»re^'.  Diary  " 
inciihc  •  Punch:"  Ac.  to. 


LONDON: 

I'Uni.l.^HED  AX  THE  ITXCH  OFFICE.  85,  FLKET 

VS  •       1847. 


REDUCED    FACSIMILE    OF    THE    PAPER   WRAPPER    TO   A 
MONTHLY   PART    OF    "  VANITY    FAIR  " 


From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Thackeray  and  Dickens       235 

the  fashion  set  by  Dickens,  was  issued  in 
monthly    parts. 

Their  methods  of  working  were  different. 
Dickens  was  industrious  in  a  manner  that 
Thackeray  could  never  claim  to  be.  The 
former  never  doubted  his  powers,  the  latter 
always  mistrusted  his  hold  on  the  public. 
Even  so  late  as  1849  he  endeavoured  to 
obtain  a  Government  appointment.  "You 
are  a  good  and  lovable  adviser  and  M.  P.," 
he  wrote  to  his  friend  Monckton  Milnes, 
"but  I  cannot  get  the  Magistrate's  place, 
not  being  eligible.  I  was  only  called  to  the 
bar  last  year,  and  they  require  barristers 
of  seven  years'  standing.  Time  will  qualify 
me,  however,  and  I  hope  to  be  able  to  last 
six  years  in  the  literary  world;  for  though 
I  shall  write,  I  daresay,  very  badly,  yet  the 
public  won't  find  it  out  for  some  time,  and 
I  shall  live  on  my  past  reputation.  It  is  a 
pity,  to  be  sure.  If  I  could  get  a  place  and 
rest,  I  think  I  could  do  something  better 
than  I  have  done,  and  leave  a  good  and 
lasting  book  behind  me;  but  Fate  is  over- 
ruling." What  a  longing  for  rest  from  the 


236    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

never-ceasing  writing  and  revising  is  here! 
But  while  the  pathos  is  marked,  a  smile 
cannot  be  suppressed  as  one  thinks  of 
Thackeray,  who  had  not  then  written  "Es- 
mond" or  "The  Newcomes,"  hoping  to  be 
able  to  live  for  six  years  in  the  literary  world 
by  trading  on  his  past  reputation.  Dickens, 
less  sensitive,  never  doubted  but  that  he 
could  suit  the  public,  though  he  lived  to  be 
threescore  and  ten.  He  knew  what  it 
wanted  and  he  supplied  the  want.  Thack- 
eray, on  the  other  hand,  wrote  as  he  de- 
sired to  write  —  and  the  general  reader  is 
not  easily  trained  to  appreciate  work  of  a 
class  higher  than  that  to  which  he  has  been 
accustomed. 

Thackeray  was  terribly  self-conscious,  and 
usually  presented  a  very  poor  appearance 
when  he  attempted  to  deliver  a  speech. 
"Why  can't  they  get  Dickens  to  take  the 
chair?"  he  grumbled,  when  he  had  to  pre- 
side at  the  General  Theatrical  Fund.  "He 
can  make  a  speech  —  and  a  good  one.  .  .  . 
I  'm  of  no  use.  .  .  .  They  little  think  how 
nervous  I  am;  and  Dickens  does  n't  know 


Thackeray  and  Dickens       237 

the  meaning  of  the  word."  An  amusing 
story  is  recorded  of  the  occasion  when,  with 
Mr.  Fields,  the  well-known  American  pub- 
lisher, Thackeray  travelled  to  Manchester 
to  make  a  speech  at  the  founding  of  the 
Free  Library  Institution  in  that  town.  The 
would-be  orator  declared  that  although  Dick- 
ens and  Bulwer  Lytton  and  Sir  James 
Stephen  were  to  precede  him,  he  intended 
to  beat  each  of  them  on  this  occasion.  He 
insisted  that  Mr.  Field  should  be  seated 
directly  in  front  of  him,  so  that  he  should 
not  miss  a  single  word.  Later,  as  he  rose, 
he  looked  at  his  friend  as  much  as  to  say, 
"I'll  show  you  what  speaking  is."  He 
began  fluently,  was  excellent  for  two  minutes, 
and  then,  in  the  midst  of  a  most  earnest 
sentence,  stopped  suddenly,  gave  a  look  of 
comic  despair  .  .  .  and  sat  down.  "My 
boy,"  he  said,  when  the  meeting  was  over, 
"my  boy,  you  have  accidentally  missed 
hearing  one  of  the  finest  speeches  ever 
prepared  by  a  great  British  orator."  Again, 
Thackeray  hated  the  lecture  desk,  while 
Dickens  declared  he  never  felt  the  least 


238    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

diffidence  in  addressing  an  audience.  The 
former  appeared  on  the  platform  simply 
as  a  well-bred  gentleman  reading,  to  a  large 
circle  of  friends,  certain  essays  with  which 
he  was  well  acquainted;  the  latter  gave 
dramatic  readings  from  his  books. 

There  are  many  meetings  between  the 
two  men  recorded,  notably  when  they  were 
both  staying  at  Boulogne  in  1854,  and  at 
the  private  theatricals  at  Tavistock  House 
in  1855.  Later  in  the  same  year,  on  October 
llth,  Dickens  took  the  chair  at  a  grand 
banquet  given  at  the  London  Tavern  to 
wish  Thackeray  God-speed  on  the  eve  of  his 
departure  to  America  to  deliver  the  Lec- 
tures on  the  Georges,  and  proposed  the 
health  of  the  guest  of  the  evening.  Two 
years  later,  when  Thackeray  was  canvass- 
ing at  Oxford,  he  sent  Dickens  a  droll  note 
urging  him  to  "come  down  and  make  a 
speech,  and  tell  them  who  I  am,  for  I  doubt 
whether  more  than  two  of  the  electors 
have  ever  heard  of  me,  and  I  think  there 
may  be  as  many  as  six  or  eight  who  have 
heard  of  you."  But  Dickens  did  not  go. 


[November.] 


HIS   FORTUNES    AND    MISFORTUNES, 
HIS     FRIENDS    AND     HIS    GREATEST     ENEMY. 


W.  M.  THACKERAY, 

Author  of"  Vanity  V:ur,"  (he  "Snob  Papers"  in  PU 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  PAPER  WRAPPER  TO 
A  MONTHLY  PART  OF  "  PENDENNIS  " 

From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


Thackeray  and  Dickens       239 

And  then  came  the  unfortunate  Edmund 
Yates  affair.  Into  the  details  of  this  quarrel 
it  is  unnecessary  to  enter.  At  the  time  it 
was  believed  (and  the  belief  has  not  yet  been 
refuted),  that  Dickens,  acting  for  Yates, 
conducted  the  matter  in  a  spirit  hostile  to 
Thackeray.  Mr.  Yates  has  since  declared 
that  there  was  no  real  intimacy  or  any- 
thing like  friendship  between  the  two  men, 
and  he  asserted  that  Thackeray  was  more 
angry  with  Dickens  than  with  the  original 
offender,  who,  much  to  his  detriment,  was 
made  the  subject  of  a  trial  of  strength 
between  them.  Mr.  Jeffreson  has  supported 
this  opinion  by  avowing  that  Thackeray 
said  to  him,  "You  must  not  think,  young 
'un,  I  am  quarrelling  with  Mr.  Yates,  I  am 
hitting  the  man  behind  him"  How  far  these 
statements  are  accurate  it  is  not  difficult  to 
determine.  Certainly  if  jealousy  existed  be- 
tween the  two  men,  it  was  not  on  Thack- 
eray's side.  No  man  with  fewer  literary 
jealousies  and  animosities  ever  existed.  But 
it  must  be  admitted  that  it  was  Dickens 
the  author  rather  than  Dickens  the  man 


24°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

whom  he  admired.  "Genial?  Yes,"  he 
once  said  of  him.  "But  frank"  —  and  a 
twinkle  came  over  the  spectacles  —  "  well, 
frank  as  an  oyster."  As  a  result  of  the 
affair,  the  novelists  did  not  speak  for  some 
years.  At  last  they  met  on  the  steps  of 
the  Athenaeum  Club  a  few  days  before  the 
Christmas  of  1863.  They  passed  each  other, 
then  Thackeray  turned  back,  and  with  out- 
stretched hand  went  up  to  Dickens  and 
said  he  could  no  longer  bear  to  be  on  any 
but  the  old  terms  of  friendship.  "I  saw 
him  .  .  .  shortly  before  Christmas  at  the 
Athena3um  Club,"  Dickens  has  recorded, 
"when  he  told  me  he  had  been  in  bed  three 
days  —  that  after  these  attacks  he  was 
troubled  with  cold  shiverings  which  quite 
took  the  work  out  of  him,  and  that  he  had 
it  in  his  mind  to  try  a  new  remedy  which 
he  described.  He  was  very  cheerful,  and 
looked  very  bright." 

A  few  days  later  Dickens  was  looking  down 
into  the  grave  of  his  great  rival.  "You 
will  have  heard  about  poor  Thackeray's 
death  —  sudden  and  yet  not  sudden  —  for 


Thackeray  and  Dickens      24 1 

he  had  long  been  alarmingly  ill,"  Dickens 
wrote  to  a  friend.  "At  the  solicitation  of 
Mr.  Smith  and  some  of  his  friends  I  have 
done  what  I  would  gladly  have  excused 
myself  from  doing  if  I  felt  I  could,  written 
a  couple  of  pages  about  him  in  what  was 
his  own  magazine.  Therein  I  have  tried 
so  far  as  I  could,  with  his  mother  and  chil- 
dren before  me,  to  avoid  the  fulsome  and 
injudicious  trash  that  has  been  written  about 
him  in  the  papers.  .  .  .  You  can  have  no 
idea  of  the  vile  stuff  .  .  .  people  who  would 
have  beslavered  him  living,  began  to  be- 
spatter him  dead." 


CHAPTER    XI 

The  Cult  of  Thackeray 

1WAS  reading  the  other  day  of  a  man 
at  a  public  dinner  many  years  ago  who, 
proposing  the  toast  of  literature,  concluded: 
"I  drink  to  the  health  of  two  of  the  greatest 
forces  in  fiction  in  the  nineteenth  century, 
Dackens  and  Thickeray  .  .  .  no,  no,  I  mean 
Dackeray  and  Thickens."  With  a  mighty 
effort  he  pulled  himself  together,  and  began 
again:  "Gentlemen,  I  drink  to  the  health 
of  Thackens  and  Dickeray."  Then  he  sat 
down,  pleased  at  having  extricated  himself 
from  the  muddle. 

The  anecdote  is  trivial,  but,  in  a  way, 
typical.  As  Beaumont  and  Fletcher  are 
always  allied  in  the  popular  mind,  so  Thack- 
eray and  Dickens  are  always  contrasted. 
The  result  is  identical.  The  thought  of  one 
writer  conjures  up  the  other.  In  the  midst 
of  a  group  of  people  say  something  about 


The  Cult  of  Thackeray      243 

Thackeray,  and  you  will  be  bombarded  with 
statements  about  Dickens. 

It  is  sometimes  said  the  men  were  not 
rivals.  As  well  say  they  were  angels.  For 
many  years  Thackeray  envied  Dickens  his 
popularity  and  financial  success;  for  ever 
Dickens  was  jealous  of  Thackeray's  style. 
Undoubtedly  Thackeray  was  spurred  to 
fresh  effort  by  each  new  success  of  his  great 
contemporary. 

Even  to-day  there  are  few  who  will  assert 
that  they  read  with  equal  pleasure  the 
works  of  both  writers.  Mr.  Andrew  Lang  is 
a  notable  exception,  but  he  is  a  man  of 
letters  with  tastes  unusually  catholic.  As 
Lowell  said,  Dickens  is  a  satiriser,  Thackeray 
a  satirist.  The  former  is  undoubtedly  the 
gift  which  attracts  the  multitude.  Readers 
of  all  classes  appreciate  Dickens;  it  is  rare 
that  an  admirer  of  Thackeray's  works  is 
found  among  the  unlettered. 

It  is  not  surprising,  therefore,  that  the 
cult  of  Thackeray  is  not  so  extensive  as 
that  of  the  author  of  "Pickwick."  Until 
recently  there  was  no  Titmarsh  Club,  and 


244    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

even  to-day  there  is  no  Thackeray  Fellow- 
ship, including  the  two  millionaires  recently 
claimed  as  adherents  of  Dickens.  No  doubt 
the  absence  of  the  millionaires  is  to  be 
regretted,  but  possibly  it  is  an  advantage  to 
escape  the  attentions  of  the  worthy  plain  folk. 
Perhaps  there  is  no  greater  difference  between 
the  Dickensians  and  the  Thackerayans  than 
that  the  former  boast  of  the  favour  with 
which  their  master  is  regarded  by  the  un- 
educated, and  that  the  latter  are  profoundly 
indifferent  to  such  distinction. 

The  admirers  of  Thackeray  and  the  wor- 
shippers of  Dickens  are  as  a  regiment  to  an 
army.  Yet,  happily,  every  day  brings  fresh 
adherents  to  the  standard  of  the  author  of 
"Esmond."  Articles  on  his  merits  as  a 
novelist,  poet,  parodist,  lecturer,  artist, 
appear  frequently  in  the  periodicals.  Every 
detail  of  his  life  is  eagerly  discussed.  The 
discovery  of  an  article  by  him  is  heralded 
far  and  wide.  Mr.  Whibley  says  the  search 
for  Thackeray's  contributions  to  Eraser's 
Magazine  has  become  a  recognized  parlour- 
game  for  the  cultured.  A  collection  of  his 


MB.  THACKEBATS  NEW  MONTHLY  WORK. 


w 


RICHARD  DOYLE. 


LONDON:  BEADBUKY  AND  ETANS,  11,  BOUVERIE  STREET. 

1853. 


No.  1. 


OCTOBER. 


Price  Is. 


REDUCED    FACSIMILE    OF    THE    PAPER    WRAPPER    TO 

A    MONTHLY    PART    OF    "THE    NEWCOMES  " 
From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


The  Cult  of  Thackeray      245 

letters  attracts  much  attention.  Even  his 
"country"  is  not  neglected;  and  during  the 
last  few  years  several  English  publishers  have 
thought  it  worth  while  to  bring  out  editions 
of  his  works. 

In  the  United  States  Thackeray  has 
always  aroused  more  interest  than  in  his 
own  land.  So  early  as  1838  the  "Yellow- 
plush  Correspondence"  was  reprinted  there; 
and  in  the  following  year  the  "Memoirs  of 
Major  Gahagan"  were  taken  from  the  pages 
of  the  New  Monthly  Magazine  and  treated 
with  similar  honours.  These  publications  at 
once  attracted  attention;  and  Mr.  N.  P. 
Willis,  visiting  England,  hastened  to  secure 
for  his  paper,  the  Corsair,  the  services  of 
their  author,  whom  he  described  as  "  one  of 
the  cleverest  and  most  brilliant  of  periodical- 
writers."  His  minor  writings  were  collected 
years  before  there  was  any  demand  for 
them  here  ;  and  American  publishers  have 
vied  with  one  another  in  issuing  complete 
editions. 

Even  in  America,  however,  Thackeray 
has  never  eclipsed  Dickens  in  point  of  sales. 


246    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Entering  a  bookstore  in  South  Carolina, 
Thackeray  inquired  how  many  copies  of 
"The  Newcomes"  had  been  sold.  He  was 
informed  that  the  first  order  was  for  three 
hundred,  and  that  two  hundred  had  subse- 
quently been  required.  He  then  asked  how 
many  copies  of  "Bleak  House"  had  been 
sold.  He  learnt  that  the  first  order  had  been 
for  five  hundred,  and  the  repeat  order  for 
six  hundred.  "  I  ask  these  questions  where- 
ever  I  go,"  he  said,  "and  the  answers  are  the 
same  everywhere."  He  always  insisted  that 
five  copies  of  Dickens's  books  were  sold  for 
every  one  of  his  own. 

Yet  the  London  representative  of  an 
American  firm,  famous  for  its  reprints  of 
classical  authors,  said  the  other  day  that 
Thackeray,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  is 
read  more  and  more  every  year,  presents  a 
knotty  point  for  publishers.  For  the  sake  of 
uniformity,  to  prevent  a  gap  in  their  cata- 
logues, each  great  publishing  house  feels  it 
incumbent  to  bring  out  an  edition;  but  it 
does  so,  if  not  actually  in  fear  and  trembling, 
at  least  with  no  enthusiasm  so  far  as  the 


The  Cult  of  Thackeray       247 

counting-house  is  concerned.  The  fact  of 
the  matter  is  that  the  great  novels  sell,  but 
there  is  astonishingly  little  demand  for  the 
minor  works.  Now,  as  in  a  new  edition,  the 
great  novels  —  "Vanity  Fair,"  "Pendennis," 
"Esmond,"  "The  Newcomes,"  "The  Vir- 
ginians," "Philip,"  —  are  given  in  six  vol- 
umes, while  there  are  about  twenty-one 
volumes  in  all,  the  reader  with  a  turn  for 
figures  may  work  out  the  chances  of  a  satis- 
factory profit. 

Some  credit  for  the  increase  of  interest  in 
Thackeray  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  Thack- 
eray enthusiasts.  Prominent  among  these, 
naturally  enough,  is  Lady  Ritchie,  whose 
biographical  introductions  to  an  edition  of 
her  father's  works  attracted  much  attention. 
Mr.  Herman  Merivale  and  Sir  Frank  T. 
Marzials  may  claim  a  share  in  the  good  work, 
for  their  monograph  on  Thackeray  is  the 
best  that  has  been  issued.  It  seems  incon- 
ceivable that  a  more  admirably  written, 
more  sympathetic  memoir  of  the  author  can 
ever  be  penned.  Mention  must  be  made  of 
Sir  Leslie  Stephen,  Dr.  John  Brown,  and 


248    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Richard  Herne  Shepherd;  and,  among  pres- 
ent-day writers,  of  Mr.  M.  H.  Spielmann, 
the  historian  of  Punch,  and  the  authority 
upon  all  matters  concerning  Thackeray's 
dealings  with  that  periodical ;  and  Mr.  Walter 
Jerrold,  who  edited  Messrs.  Dent's  dainty 
edition,  which  will  always  occupy  a  unique 
place  by  virtue  of  Mr.  C.  E.  Brock's  delight- 
ful illustrations. 

Across  the  ocean,  enthusiasts,  past  and 
present,  must  be  counted  not  by  units,  but 
by  battalions;  but  since  this  is  not  a  cata- 
logue, only  a  few  can  be  named:  Mr.  J.  T. 
Fields,  publisher  and  man  of  letters;  Mr. 
Evert  A.  Duyckinck,  the  editor  of  the  first 
edition  of  the  minor  works;  Mr.  Horace  E. 
Scudder,  the  editor  of  the  1889  edition;  and 
the  famous  collectors,  Mr.  Frederick  S.  Dick- 
son —  the  greatest  authority  on  Thackeray's 
very  complicated  bibliography  —  Mr.  W.  T. 
Bixby;  and  Major  William  H.  Lambert, 
whose  collection  of  Thackeray  editions  and 
manuscripts  is  unrivalled. 

The  influence  of  Dickens  upon  writers  has 
been  stronger,  numerically,  at  least,  than 


No.  1  1 


[NOVEMBER.] 


[  Price  Is. 


A  TALE  OF  THE  LAST  CENTURY 


BY  W.  M.  THACKERAY. 


LONDON : 
BRADBURY  AND  EVANS,  11,  EOUVERIE  STREET. 

1857. 


REDUCED  FACSIMILE  OF  THE  PAPER  WRAPPER  TO 
A  MONTHLY  PART  OF  "THE  VIRGINIANS" 

From  the  copy  owned  by  Major  William  H.  Lambert 


The  Cult  of  Thackeray       249 

that  of  Thackeray  because  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  it  is  easier  to  follow  the  former, 
though  his  excellence  is  as  difficult  of  attain- 
ment. A  hearty  style  and  an  exaggerated 
domesticity:  by  these  shall  ye  know  the 
imitators  of  the  inimitable  author  of  "  David 
Copperfield." 

Thackeray  has  no  obvious  imitators.  He 
does  not  lend  himself  easily  even  to  the 
parodist.  Read  some  lines  of  Lover's  bur- 
lesque, which  is  not  only  the  worst  parody 
that  Lover  ever  wrote,  but  probably  the  worst 
ever  written.  It  is  cast  in  the  form  of  a  letter 
refusing  to  become  a  member  of  a  committee 
appointed  to  adjudicate  upon  prose  poems 
written  in  honour  of  the  Burns  Centenary. 

"A  strange  compliment,  in  sooth,  to  be 
asked  to  have  one's  ears  scratched  with  the 
wretched  rhymes  and  false  metres  in  which 
some  hundreds  of  poetasters  will  measure  of 
the  contents  of  their  poetic  gasometers, 
whose  emanations  are  more  likely  to  be 
remarkable  for  mephitism  than  brilliancy." 

Could  anything  be  more  unlike  Thackeray, 
whose  style  was  at  least  as  near  perfection 


25°    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

as  that  of  any  of  his  contemporaries,  and 
who,  whatever  his  faults,  never  wrote  a 
sentence  that  was  not  simple  and  lucid? 

Yet  the  influence  of  Thackeray  may  be 
detected  in  some  quarters.  By  right  of 
seniority,  Mr.  W.  E.  Norris  shall  be  men- 
tioned first;  and  after  him  Mr.  Percy  White. 
If  the  name  of  Mr.  G.  S.  Street  is  put  third, 
it  is  because  many  men  of  letters  have  a 
grudge  against  him.  In  an  age  when  the 
general  complaint  is  that  every  one  writes, 
and  that  every  one  writes  too  much,  those 
who  know  Mr.  Street's  work  complain 
that  he  writes  too  little.  If  he  owes  a  debt 
of  sentiment  to  Thackeray,  he  is  a  writer  so 
distinctive  that  we  may  be  sure  the  debt 
would  gratefully  be  cancelled  by  the  creditor. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  into  the 
question  of  the  value  of  Thackeray's  con- 
tributions to  literature;  still,  this  paper  may 
conclude  with  the  remark  —  there  are  few 
who  will  deny  that  he  has  achieved  the  place 
he  desired  to  occupy  when  he  said  to  a 
friend,  "I  wish  one  day  to  rank  with  th**. 
classical  writers." 


I 


CHAPTER    XII 

Thackeray  and  the  Stage 

F  we  have  made  ourselves  familiar  with 
a  famous  work  of  fiction  in  an  unillus- 
trated  copy,  and  subsequently  come  across 
an  illustrated  edition  of  the  same  book,  it 
is  long  odds  that. we  are  dissatisfied  with  the 
plates.  Indeed,  it  is  almost  certain  that  we 
quarrel  with  the  artist's  conception  of  the 
characters,  let  the  artist  be  ever  so  dis- 
tinguished. We  had  always  conceived  the 
hero  tall,  broad,  and  fair;  the  villain  dark, 
narrow  and  swarthy;  or  vice  versa;  and  we 
feel  ourselves  cheated  when  we  look  at  their 
counterfeit  presentments,  and  behold  them 
depicted  as  other  than  they  are  in  our  mind's 
eye.  The  case  is  parallel  with  that  of  an 
adaptation  for  the  stage  of  a  classic  novel, 
and  I  suppose  that  it  was  with  mixed  feelings 
that  admirers  of  "The  Newcomes"  heard 
of  Sir  Herbert  Beerbohm  Tree's  production 


25 2    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

of  a  dramatic  version  at  His  Majesty's 
Theatre. 

Pre-eminent  among  the  conflicting  emo- 
tions is  the  fear  that  the  adapter,  however 
skilful  he  may  be,  cannot  have  done  justice 
to  the  book.  The  first  question  we  ask 
ourselves  is :  How  can  he  possibly  have  com- 
pressed into  the  three  hours'  traffic  of  the 
stage  all  the  incidents  and  all  the  characters? 
A  moment's  reflection  assures  us  that  he 
will  have  made  no  such  impossible  attempt, 
and  that  he  has  selected  a  few  prominent 
characters  and  attached  them  to  an  incident 
or  a  series  of  incidents.  Then  we  wonder 
which  characters  and  which  incidents  will 
be  presented,  and  we  argue  about  them  and 
discuss  their  suitability  with  the  greatest 
interest.  Nowadays,  the  bookish  section  of 
the  public  is  inclined  rather  to  hold  aloof 
from  the  theatre  where  the  plays  produced 
may  have  great  merits  but  usually  lack  any 
literary  qualities;  but  such  a  piece  as 
"Colonel  Newcome"  surely  draws  them  all. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  presented  by 
works  that  depend  more  on  atmosphere  than 


Copyright  by  F.  W.  Burford,  London. 

SIR   HERBERT   BEERBOHM   TREE   AS   COLONEL 
NEWCOME 


Thackeray  and  the  Stage     253 

plot,  and  more  on  characterisation  than  situ- 
ation, there  have  been  several  adapters  of 
Thackeray's  books  for  the  stage. 

"Jeames's  Diary"  was  dramatised  before 
it  had  run  its  course  in  Punch,  where  the 
close  of  the  narrative  left  Jeames  happy  and 
contented,  save  that  "a  written  version  of 
his  adventures  has  been  produced  at  the 
Princess's  Theatre,  'without  your  leaf  or 
by  your  leaf.'  '  That  was  in  1846;  and  it 
was  not  until  thirty-two  years  later  that 
Mr.  John  Hollingshead  produced  at  the 
Gaiety  Theatre  Mr.  (now  Sir  F.  C.)  Bur- 
nand's  "Jeames:  a  New  and  Original  Com- 
edy," with  Mr.  Edward  Terry  as  De  La 
Pluche,  and  Miss  Ellen  Farren  as  Mary 
Ann  Hoggins. 

"Vanity  Fair"  has  had  many  theatrical 
adventures.  "We  all  set  to  work  on  'Vanity 
Fair'  with  our  mind's  eye  set  on  Marie  Ban- 
croft for  Becky,  and  Bancroft  for  'Dobbin 
of  Ours,'  and  Fred  Yonge  for  Rawdon,  and 
Hare  for  the  Marquis  of  Steyne,"  Clement 
Scott  has  recorded.  "That  was  for  the  old 
Prince  of  Wales's.  Tom  Hood  tried  it. 


254    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Arthur  Sketchley  tried  it,  every  one  more  or 
less  breaking  down."  A  version  was  pro- 
duced at  Leeds  in  1882,  but  it  was  Mr.  J.  M. 
Barrie  who  first  set  the  ball  really  rolling  in 
1893,  with  the  presentation  of  the  scene  in 
which  Becky  (Miss  Janet  Achurch),  fallen 
upon  evil  days  at  Pumpernickel-Weimar, 
makes  her  last  desperate  —  and  successful 
—  attempt  to  ensnare  Jos  Sedley  (Mr. 
Edmund  Maurice).  This  was  followed  eight 
years  later  by  Mr.  Balsillie's  version  (with 
the  Duchess  of  Richmond's  ball  scene),  pro- 
duced at  Croydon  by  Miss  Annie  Hughes, 
who,  of  course,  played  Becky,  with  Mr. 
Wigney  Percyval  as  "the  wicked  nobleman," 
and  Miss  Kate  Bishop  as  Miss  Crawley; 
and  about  the  same  time  appeared  at  the 
Prince  of  Wales's  Theatre,  the  successful 
Hichens-Gordon-Lennox  adaptation,  with  a 
very  long  cast  (from  which  Dobbin  was 
unaccountably  omitted),  including  Miss 
Marie  Tempest  as  Becky,  Mr.  Leonard 
Boyne  as  Rawdon,  and  Mr.  Gilbert  Hare  as 
Lord  Steyne.  In  America  there  have  been 
at  least  three  "Vanity  Fair"  plays,  one  so 


Thackeray  and  the  Stage     255 

early  as  1849  by  the  actor-dramatist,  Mr. 
John  Brougham,  another  by  the  dramatist- 
actor,  Mr.  George  Fawcett  Rowe,  and  a 
third,  in  1899,  by  Mr.  Langdon  Mitchell, 
with  Mrs.  Fiske  as  Becky. 

After  "Vanity  Fair,"  "Esmond"  has  had 
most  attraction  for  the  adapters.  A  version 
was  written  for  Mr.  E.  H.  Sothern,  and 
another  by  Mr.  W.  H.  Wills  was  prepared 
for  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Kendal,  and  came  into 
the  possession  of  Sir  Henry  Irving,  by  whom 
it  was  handed  over  to  the  amateur  dramatic 
club  that  bears  his  name,  which  gave  a  per- 
formance of  it  in  June,  1893.  Then  Mr.  T. 
Edgar  Pemberton  tried  his  hand,  and  the 
result  of  his  labours  saw  the  light  in  the 
provinces  in  1897.  With  regard  to  Thack- 
eray's other  books  there  has  been  an  adap- 
tation of  "The  Rose  and  the  Ring,"  by  Mr. 
H.  Saville  Clarke,  with  music  by  Mr.  Walter 
Slaughter;  and  I  have  read  of  a  one-act 
play,  "The  Fotheringay,"  given  by  the 
Old  Comedy  Company,  which  was  based 
upon  the  earlier  chapters  of  "Pendennis." 

Thackeray  in  his  early  days  wrote  "Read- 


256    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

ing  a  Poem,"  a  sketch  in  dialogue  treating  of 
the  days  when  Bungay  and  Bacon,  the 
publishers  in  "Pendennis,"  issued  "Keep- 
sakes" and  "Spring  Annuals,"  and  would 
pay  large  sums  to  obtain  the  poems  —  or  at 
least,  the  names  —  of  titled  folk.  The  satire 
is  keen,  but  best  of  all  are  the  descriptions 
of  the  characters.  Mr.  Bogle — "the  cele- 
brated publisher  in  a  publisher's  costume  of 
deep  black."  Mr.  Bludyer  —  "an  English 
gentleman  of  the  Press,  editor  of  the  Weekly 
Bravo  .  .  .  should  smell  very  much  of  stale 
smoke,  and  need  not  shave  for  two  or  three 
days  before  performing  the  part." 

It  was  always  a  grief  to  Thackeray  that 
he  could  not  write  a  play  that  managers 
would  produce.  It  is,  of  course,  well  known 
that  he  wrote  a  comedy,  "The  Wolves  and 
the  Lamb,"  which,  when  Buckstone  and 
Wigan  declined,  he  converted  into  "Lovel 
the  Widower."  But  he  made  the  change 
with  regret,  and  when  some  one  asked  him 
for  permission  to  turn  "Lovel  the  Widower" 
into  a  play,  it  is  doubtful  whether  he  was 
pleased  or  grieved.  "The  last  act  is  so  very 


MRS.    FISKE   AS   BECKY   SHARP 

See  page  255 


Thackeray  and  the  Stage     257 

lively  and  amusing  that  I  cannot  but  think 
Mr.  Wigan  and  Mr.  Buckstone  were  wrong 
concerning  it,'*  he  told  his  correspondent. 
"I  thought  I  could  write  a  play,"  he  said  on 
another  occasion,  "but  it  seems  I  can't." 
However,  since  he  could  not  have  "The 
Wolves  and  the  Lamb"  performed  in  public, 
he  gave  private  representations  of  it  when  he 
moved  into  "the  reddest  house  in  all  the 
town"  at  Palace-green,  and  he  took  part  in 
it  himself,  but,  declining  a  speaking  part  on 
the  ground  that  he  could  not  possibly  learn 
such  poor  words,  he  contented  himself  with 
an  appearance  as  the  clerical  father  just 
before  the  fall  of  the  curtain,  when  he  held 
out  his  hands  and  said  in  pantomime  to 
actors  and  audience,  "Bless  you,  my 
children." 

Thackeray  was  always  happy  in  a  theatre. 
Once  he  asked  a  friend  if  he  loved  "the 
play,"  and  received  the  qualified  answer, 
"  Ye-es,  I  like  a  good  play."  "  Oh,  get  out ! " 
the  great  man  retorted.  "I  said  the  play. 
You  don't  even  understand  what  I  mean!" 
And  FitzGerald  went  one  night  with  Thack- 


258    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

eray  in  the  pit  to  witness  a  piece  which, 
with  its  mock  sentiment,  its  indifferent 
humour,  and  ultra-theatrical  scenes  bored 
him  so  terribly  that  he  was  about  to  suggest 
they  should  leave  the  theatre,  when  Thack- 
eray turned  to  him,  and  exclaimed  delight- 
edly: "By  G—d!  isn't  it  splendid!" 


Thackeray's  "New  Sketch  Book  "  1 

THE  legend  on  the  back  of  this  volume 
runs:  "W.  M.  Thackeray:  The  New 
Sketch  Book.  Edited  by  Robert  S.  Garnett," 
and  neither  there  nor  on  the  title-page  is 
given  any  indication  that  the  collection  of 
papers  is  only  believed  by  the  editor  to  have 
been  written  by  the  great  novelist.  Not  until 
one  reads  the  admirable  introduction  is  it 
realised  that  the  articles  appeared  anony- 
mously in  the  Foreign  Quarterly  Review  be- 
tween 1842  and  1844,  and,  so  far  as  Mr. 
Garnett  is  aware,  the  authorship  is  proved 
only  by  the  all  too  often  misleading  sugges- 
tions of  "internal  evidence."  The  "find," 
however,  has  been  accepted  as  genuine  —  so 

1  "W.  M.  Thackeray:  The  New  Sketch  Book."  Being  Essays 
now  first  collected  from  "The  Foreign  Quarterly  Review."  Edited, 
with  an  Introduction  by  Robert  S.  Garnett,  with  an  Appendix  on 
the  Authors  Criticised.  7s.  6d.  net.  (Alston  Rivers). 


260    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

far  as  most  of  the  papers  are  concerned  — 
by  such  weighty  critics  as  Mr.  W.  L.  Court- 
ney and  Mr.  Walter  Jerrold. 

I  am  fortunate  enough  to  be  in  a  position 
now  to  bring  forward  some  important  evi- 
dence bearing  upon  the  authorship  of  the 
papers  in  question,  obtained  by  following  up 
a  clue  suggesting  itself  to  me  by  a  few  lines 
in  the  late  Rev.  Whitwell  Elwin's  interesting 
account  of  "Thackeray  in  Search  of  a  Pro- 
fession" (The  Monthly  Review,  October,  1904) : 
—  "In  his  review,  in  1843,  of  the  rabid  politi- 
cal verses  by  the  German  Herwegh,  whose 
panacea  for  social  evils  was  the  extermination 
by  civil  war  of  rulers  and  clergy,  Thackeray, 
in  ridicule  of  his  savage  rant,  said  that  twenty 
years  earlier  some  young  philosophers  might 
possibly  in  part  have  applauded  his  doctrines 
at  a  Union  debate.  Arthur  Pendennis  was 
one  of  these  precocious  philanthropists." 
Appended  to  this  was  a  footnote  referring  to 
the  Herwegh  paper:  "In  the  Foreign  Quar- 
terly Review,,  April,  1843."  At  the  time  I 
thought  nothing  of  this,  though  I  looked  at 
the  Herwegh  paper;  but  it  recurred  to  me 


WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 

From  a  drawing  by  Samuel  Laurence 

By  permission  of  Major  WtUlam  H.  Lambert 


"New  Sketch  Book"         261 

at  the  time  when  "The  New  Sketch  Book" 
was  published.  The  reference  to  this  peri- 
odical struck  me  for  the  first  time  as  curious, 
since  it  was  not  then  generally  known  that 
Thackeray  contributed  to  this  long-forgotten 
quarterly;  and  it  occurred  to  me,  belatedly 
enough,  that  he  who  wrote  the  footnote 
might  probably  have  some  further  knowledge 
on  the  subject  of  Thackeray's  connection 
with  this  Review.  I  wrote  to  Mr.  John 
Murray  (to  whom  I  here  express  my  thanks) 
to  ask  if  he  could  tell  me  whether  the  note 
was  in  the  original  manuscript  of  the  late 
editor  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  or  whether  it 
had  been  added  by  another  hand.  It  tran- 
spires that  it  was  inserted  by  the  author's 
son,  who  has  supplied  further  information, 
which,  by  his  courtesy,  I  am  permitted  to 
make  use. 

Mr.  Elwin  found  among  his  father's  Thack- 
eray memoranda  —  it  is  an  open  secret 
that  the  late  Rev.  Whitwell  Elwin  intended 
to  write  the  life  of  Thackeray  —  the 
following: 

"List  of  Thackeray's  articles  in  Foreign 


262    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Quarterly  Review.  —  July  1842.  The  German 
in  England;  Oct.  1842.  Travelling  Ro- 
mancers. M.  Dumas  on  the  Rhine;  April 
1843.  Georg  Herwegh's  Poems. — Vol.  31; 
April  1843.  Les  Mysteres  de  Paris.  By 
Eugene  Sue.  6  vols.  Paris.  1843.  —  Vol. 
31;  Oct.  1843.  Death  and  Dying  in  France. 
—  Vol.  32;  Oct.  1843.  French  Romancers 
on  England.  Le  Bananier,  par  Frederic 
Soulie.  —  Vol.  32;  Jan.  1844.  New  Accounts 
of  Paris.  —  Vol.  32.  —  Mainly  a  review  of 
'Lettres  Parisiennes,  par  Emile  de  Girardin.' 
I  take  this  article  to  be  Thackeray's  from 
internal  evidence.  At  the  close  he  briefly 
notices  *  Paris  and  its  People.  By  the  Author 
of  "Random  Recollections  of  the  House  of 
Commons."  In  Eraser's  Magazine  for  Dec. 
1843,  he  has  a  separate  article  entirely  de- 
voted to  Grant's  book." 

The  above  has  been  copied  verbatim  by 
Mr.  Elwin,  who  thinks  that  from  the  last 
note  his  father  had  more  authority  than  "in- 
ternal evidence"  for  attributing  the  rest  of 
the  list  positively  to  Thackeray.  "John 
Forster  edited  the  Foreign  Quarterly  Review 


"New  Sketch  Book"         263 

at  this  time,  and  my  father  may  have  known 
from  him  that  Thackeray  contributed  to  it," 
Mr.  Elwin  remarks.  "But  all  Forster's 
papers  passed  through  my  father's  hands  as 
literary  executor,  and  I  do  not  doubt  that 
the  list  was  derived  from  them  in  some  way, 
and  that  it  is  authoritative  as  far  as  it  goes. 
It  does  not  follow  that  it  is  complete,  but 
my  father  searched  the  Foreign  Quarterly 
Review  for  that  period,  and  I  have  no  doubt 
it  includes  all  he  thought  to  be  Thackeray's." 
For  these  papers  additional  evidence  can 
be  produced.  To  take  two  or  three  at  hap- 
hazard! Compare  the  review  of  "Paris  and 
its  People,"  in  "The  New  Sketch  Book," 
with  the  acknowledged  paper  on  the  same 
book  in  Eraser's  Magazine,  "Grant  in  Paris," 
which  appeared  a  month  earlier  (December, 
1843).  Each  article  is  scathing,  though  in  the 
latter  the  critic  used  all  his  power  of  invec- 
tive upon  Grant,  who  was  one  of  the  favourite 
butts  in  Punch.  In  each  there  is  mention  of 
the  fact  that  Grant  was  unacquainted  with 
the  French  language;  in  each  are  pointed  out 
the  same  two  blunders,  Palais  Royale  and 


264    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Chautdbriand ;  in  each  are  references  to 
Grant's  statements  that  the  most  elegant 
ladies  of  the  land  sit  alongside  of  dirty  drivers 
in  hack-cabriolets,  and  that  the  gentry  of 
Paris  are  in  the  habit  of  dining  at  thirty- 
sous  eating-houses,  which  eating-houses  pro- 
vide a  meal  that  the  traveller  regards  as 
luxury!  It  is  surely  unnecessary  to  make 
further  analysis. 

Next  take  the  review  of  "Les  Mysteres  de 
Paris,"  and  read  it,  remembering  what 
Thackeray  in  a  little-known  letter  said  of  the 
works  of  Eugene  Sue. 

And  who  but  the  author  of  "Catherine" 
could  have  written  this  passage  anent  one  of 
the  characters  in  that  remarkable  novel: 
"This  sum  of  money  the  young  woman  spent 
very  carelessly,  and  having  given  away  her 
last  fifty  francs  to  a  poor  woman  in  distress 
(who  was  afterwards  murdered  by  her  hus- 
band), the  goualeuse  had  no  other  resource 
but  shame,  and  became  the  creature  of  the 
ogress  in  whose  house  she  lived.  With  all 
this,  and  although  she  had  been  accustomed 
to  drinking,  and  although  she  had  been  edu- 


WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 

From  the  portrait  by  Samuel  Laurence,  1852 
By  permission  of  Messrs.  Smith,  Elder.  &  Co. 


"New  Sketch  Book"        265 

cated  in  a  prison,  and  although  she  earned 
her  livelihood  in  the  way  indicated,  perhaps 
the  world  never  contained  a  more  lovely, 
fascinating,  delicate,  sweet  creature  than 
the  goualeuse"? 

Lastly,  read  a  passage  from  the  review  of 
Madame  de  Girardin's  "Lettres  Parisi- 
ennes:"  "And  is  it  so?  Is  it  true  that  the 
women  of  Madame  de  Girardin's  country, 
and  of  fashionable  life,  are  the  heartless, 
odious,  foolish,  swindling,  smiling,  silly,  sel- 
fish creatures  she  paints  them?  Have  they 
no  sense  of  religious  duty,  no  feeling  of 
maternal  affection,  no  principle  of  conjugal 
attachment,  no  motive  except  variety,  for 
which  they  will  simulate  passion  (it  stands 
to  reason  that  a  woman  who  does  not  love 
husband  and  children  can  love  nobody)  and 
break  all  law?  Is  this  true  —  as  every  French 
romance  that  has  been  written  time  out  of 
mind,  would  have  us  believe?  Is  it  so  com- 
mon that  Madame  de  Girardin  can  afford  to 
laugh  at  it  as  a  joke,  and  talk  of  it  as  a  daily 
occurrence?  —  and  if  so,  if  we  must  take  the 
Frenchman's  own  word  for  it  —  in  spite  of 


266    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

all  the  faults,  and  all  the  respectability,  and 
all  the  lord- worship,  and  all  the  prejudice, 
and  all  the  insoluble  dulness  of  Baker  Street 

—  Miss    (the   young   and    amiable   English 
lady  before  apostrophised)   had  much  bet- 
ter  marry    in    the    Portman    Square    than 
in  the   Place  Vendome    quarter."     Of   this 
passage,    as    Mr.    W.    L.    Courtney    says 
of     another,    surely    the     reader    will     be 
inclined     to     say,    "Aut    Thackeray,    aut 
Diabolus." 

Of  the  seven  papers  identified,  of  one  — 
"Dumas  on  the  Rhine" — further  proof  of 
authorship  is  to  be  found  in  Fitzpatrick's 
"Life  of  Lever,"  and  it  has  therefore  been 
included  in  a  recent  edition  of  Thackeray's 
works  (Macmillan;  Vol.  XV.:  "The  Fitz- 
Boodle  Papers,  etc.;  "  1904);  while  another 

—  "Death  and  Dying  in  France"  —  is  now 
first  made  known.     The  remaining  five  are 
included  among  the  eleven  papers  in  "The 
New  Sketch  Book."     It  cannot  be  denied, 
however,  that  while  mention  in  the  Rev. 
Whitwell  Elwin's  list  makes  Mr.  Garnett's 
assumptions  appear  accurate  so  far  as  the 


"New  Sketch  Book"         267 

five  articles  are  concerned,  the  omission  of 
the  other  six  renders  very  doubtful  indeed 
the  suggestion  that  they,  too,  were  written 
by  Thackeray.  Still,  they  must  not  be  dis- 
missed without  considerations.  Take,  first, 
the  reviews  of  Victor  Hugo's  "Le  Rhin" 
(April,  1842),  and  Alfred  Michiel's  "Angle- 
terre"  (July,  1844),  which  appeared  respec- 
tively before  the  first  and  after  the  last 
article  mentioned  by  Elwin,  who,  therefore 
may  or  may  not  have  read  them.  It  is  cer- 
tainly difficult  not  to  accept  as  from  Thack- 
eray's pen  the  paper  on  Victor  Hugo's  book, 
after  listening  to  what  Mr.  Garnett  has  to 
say  on  the  subject.  "In  1842  Thackeray 
wrote  to  Edward  FitzGerald  that  he  had  read 
no  good  books  or  novels  worth  mentioning, 
but  scores  of  volumes  of  history,  and,  by  way 
of  amusement,  Victor  Hugo's  new  book  on 
the  Rhine.  'He  is  very  great,  and  writes 
like  a  God  Almighty,'  continues  Thackeray, 
and  he  explains  that  he  has  been  trying  to 
write  about  Hugo's  letters  that  day,  only 
squeezing  out  one  page.  A  remark  of  Hugo's 
about  looking  at  the  stars  —  that  night  is  as 


268    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

it  were  the  normal  colour  of  heaven  —  struck 
him,  and  he  says  that  to  him  there  is  some- 
thing awful  in  it,  and  that  he  is  certain  that 
time  and  space  are  dark  blue.  The  tone  of 
the  letter  and  of  the  review  are  so  strikingly 
similar  as  to  admit  no  doubt  of  the  identity 
of  the  writer.  'He  is  very  great,  and  writes 
like  a  God  Almighty,'  says  the  letter-writer, 
and  on  the  first  page  of  the  review  —  that 
page  which  Thackeray  squeezed  out  so 
laboriously  —  we  find  him  parodying  Victor 
Hugo,  who  is  very  great;  and  on  the  third 
page  he  shows  him  posed  precisely  as  a 
divinity.  And  a  little  further  on  we  find 
him  quoting  and  admiring  —  with  a  touch 
of  generosity  which  is  charming  in  the 
contrast  —  a  passage  of  description  of 
the  night  sky,  such  a  passage  as  that 
which  had  so  moved  Edward  FitzGerald's 
correspondent." 

Surely  this  is  conclusive  so  far  as  internal 
evidence  ever  can  be  conclusive.  But, 
although  Mr.  Garnett  regards  the  scathing 
notice  of  Michiel's  "Angleterre"  as  "thor- 
oughly typical  of  the  critic's  mature  talent," 


WILLIAM  MAKEPEACE  THACKERAY 

After  one  of  his  later  photographs,  taken  by  the  London  Stereoscopic 

Company 
By  permission  of  Messrs.  Smith,  Elder,  &  Co. 


"New  Sketch  Book"         269 

I  would  not  like  to  say  more  than  that 
Thackeray  may  have  written  it.  It  is  true 
that  the  geniality  that  is  commonly  regarded 
as  a  feature  of  the  master's  writings  is  want- 
ing, but  then  it  must  be  remembered  that 
the  contributions  to  the  Foreign  Quarterly 
Review  were  written  in  the  days  when  he  sent 
to  Eraser's  Magazine  articles  full  of  virulent 
abuse. 

After  careful  study  of  the  review  of  Du- 
mas' "Crimes  Celebres,"  I  am  not  inclined 
to  attribute  it  to  Thackeray,  and  I  am  of 
the  same  opinion  with  regard  to  the  review  of 
Balzac's  "Monographic  de  la  Paresse  Pari- 
sienne,"  although  the  observations  upon  the 
woodcut  illustrations  read  like  him.  Mr. 
Garnett  believes  the  paper  on  Gutznow's 
"Briefe  aus  Paris"  was  written  by  Thackeray 
and  revised  by  the  Editor  of  the  Foreign 
Quarterly  Review,  but  I  cannot  find  many 
passages  that  to  me  seem  to  have  been  indited 
by  Thackeray.  We  are,  however,  on  less 
debatable  ground  with  the  only  item  not  yet 
mentioned,  "English  History  and  Character 
on  the  French  Stage,"  for  a  comparison  with 


270    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

a  similar  article  in  "The  Paris  Sketch  Book" 
will  convince  most  people  of  the  identity  of 
the  author. 

Though  these  papers  can  add  nothing  to 
Thackeray's  reputation,  and  though  some  of 
them  are  mere  journeyman's  work,  yet, 
without  claiming  for  them  high  value  as 
criticism  —  for  Thackeray,  indeed,  was  in- 
sular in  his  prejudices  —  they  are  certainly 
most  entertaining  to  read.  Mr.  Garnett  has 
done  well  to  reprint  them,  even  in  the  face 
of  the  prejudice  that  exists  in  some  quarters 
against  the  "resurrection"  of  the  minor 
writings  of  a  great  author;  and  it  is  right 
that,  in  addition,  grateful  acknowledgment 
should  be  made  of  his  services  as  editor,  his 
excellent  introduction,  and  his  valuable  notes 
on  the  authors  criticised. 


CHAPTER    XIV 

Mr.  Whibley  on  Thackeray l 

THERE  is  no  doubt  that  the  popularity 
of  Thackeray  increases  by  leaps  and 
bounds.  A  certain  section  of  the  public 
has  always  been  faithful  to  the  author 
of  "Esmond,"  but  every  day  fresh  adher- 
ents are  crowding  round  the  standard  of  the 
great  novelist  of  the  nineteenth  century. 
Looking  back,  it  seems  as  if  Lady  Ritchie's 
Biographical  Introduction  to  an  edition  of 
her  father's  works,  and  a  "Life  of  William 
Makepeace  Thackeray,"  both  published  in 
1899,  gave  an  impetus  to  the  movement. 
Certainly,  they  afforded  much  food  for 
discussion.  Interest  in  Thackeray  having 
been  stimulated,  various  collections  of  the 
lesser  known  writings  of  the  great  man 

1  "William    Makepeace   Thackeray."     By   Charles    Whibley. 
"  Modern  English  Writers." 


272    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

appeared  in  quick  succession  —  "Contri- 
butions to  the  National  Standard  and  the 
Constitutional,"  "  Stray  Papers,"  and  "The 
Hitherto  Unidentified  Contributions  to 
Punch."  Publishers  soon  realised  there  was 
an  ever-increasing  demand  for  Thackeray's 
works,  and  several  new  editions,  each  pos- 
sessing some  special  feature,  have  been 
offered  to  the  public.  Messrs.  Nelson  issued 
a  thin  paper  edition;  Messrs.  Dent  an 
edition,  edited  by  Mr.  Walter  Jerrold,  one 
of  the  leading  authorities  on  the  novelist, 
and  illustrated  by  Mr.  C.  E.  Brock;  and 
Messrs.  Macmillan  the  first  absolutely  com- 
plete edition  of  Thackeray's  writings  and 
drawings,  edited  by  the  present  writer. 
At  this  moment  Messrs.  Macmillan  are 
reissuing  their  edition  with  the  special  fea- 
ture of  five  hundred  illustrations  by  Mr. 
Harry  Furniss;  and  Messrs.  Smith,  Elder 
and  Company  are  bringing  out  an  admir- 
able Centenary  edition  which  includes  Lady 
Ritchie's  Introduction.  Contributions  to 
the  reviews  upon  the  various  aspects  of 
Thackeray  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  and 


Mr.  Whibley  on  Thackeray    273 

it  rarely  happens  that  a  month  passes  with- 
out the  publication  in  England  or  America 
of  a  paper  treating  of  Thackeray  as  novelist 
or  essayist,  as  lecturer  or  poet,  as  artist 
or  art-critic,  as  moralist  or  cynic  or  humour- 
ist. This  tends  to  prove  that  Thackeray, 
once  the  spoiled  darling  of  the  cultured,  has 
now  found  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  great 
mass  of  educated  readers.  The  change 
was  for  a  long  time  so  slight  as  to  be  al- 
most imperceptible,  but  during  the  last  few 
years  it  has  been  so  rapid,  that  it  is  well  to 
pause  for  a  moment  to  consider  what  is 
Thackeray's  place  in  literature  —  accord- 
ing to  the  new  and  somewhat  altered 
view. 

Mr.  Charles  Whibley's  long-promised  mon- 
ograph on  Thackeray  has  at  last  been 
published,  and  there  is  no  doubt  it  will  be 
very  widely  read.  Mr.  Whibley  has  won 
his  spurs  as  an  author  with  "Studies  in 
Frankness,"  "A  Book  of  Scoundrels,"  and 
other  volumes  pleasant  to  read;  and  he 
has  proved  himself  a  clear-sighted  and 
erudite  critic,  whose  opinions  are  usually 


274    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

sound  and  frequently  suggestive.  Indeed, 
Messrs.  Blackwood  may  be  congratulated 
upon  having  induced  him  to  write  the 
Thackeray  volume  of  their  excellent  "Mod- 
ern English  Writers"  series. 

Mr.  Whibley  is  not  to  be  blamed  because 
he  has  nothing  new  to  say  concerning 
Thackeray's  life.  The  life  of  a  man  of 
letters  is  usually  devoid  of  incident,  and 
though  in  this  particular  instance  there 
are  some  special  features  of  interest,  it  is 
highly  improbable  that  there  is  anything 
to  say  that  has  not  been  said  over  and 
over  again.  Thackeray's  first  biographer 
was  John  Camden  Hotten,  and  his  book 
was  verily  a  thing  of  shreds  and  patches. 
Later,  Anthony  Trollope  outlined  Thack- 
eray's career  with  no  sympathetic  pen, 
but  perhaps  with  more  truth  than  is  gener- 
ally admitted,  and  then  followed  Messrs. 
Hermann  Merivale  and  Frank  T.  Marzial's 
monograph,  Lady  Ritchie's  Biographical  In- 
troductions, and  the  present  writer's  "Life 
of  William  Makepeace  Thackeray."  It  is 
to  be  expected  that  at  some  remote  date, 


Mr.  Whibley  on  Thackeray    275 

and  perhaps  by  some  writer  as  yet  unborn, 
an  "official"  biography  will  appear  —  but 
even  such  a  work  will  contain  little  that  is 
unknown,  save,  possibly,  some  hitherto  un- 
printed  letters.  Mr.  Whibley's  book,  there- 
fore, is  interesting  chiefly  as  a  critical  review. 
It  has  been  stated  so  frequently  and  with 
such  persistence  that  Thackeray's  style  is 
as  near  perfection  as  is  humanly  possible, 
that  Mr.  Whibley's  remark  that  he  is  far 
from  satisfied  with  that  style  has  the  effect 
of  a  cold  douche.  "His  words  flow  like 
snow-water  upon  the  mountain-side.  He 
could  no  more  restrain  the  current  of  his 
prose  than  a  gentle  slope  could  turn  a  rivulet 
back  upon  its  course.  His  sentences  dash 
one  over  the  other  in  an  often  aimless  suc- 
cession, as  though  impelled  by  a  force  in- 
dependent of  their  author,"  he  remarks; 
and  he  complains  that  Thackeray  possessed 
no  economy  of  speech,  and  that  he  never 
used  one  word  if  a  page  and  a  half  could 
adequately  express  the  meaning.  It  is  im- 
possible to  contradict  the  critic.  Thackeray 
did  amble  along,  often  almost  aimlessly, 


276    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

and  he  did  pile  up  mountains  of  words 
without  getting  any  "forrader;"  just  as 
he  only  too  frequently  interrupted  what 
slight  thread  of  story  there  was  to  interject 
little  essays  germane  to  the  narrative. 
These  objections  from  a  lesser  man  than 
Mr.  Whibley  might  be  dismissed  as  a  pro- 
test against  novels  without  plots;  but  Mr. 
Whibley  is  himself  too  capable  an  artist 
to  mean  only  this.  He  is  angry,  and  his 
anger  is  aroused  by  the  feeling  that  Thack- 
eray did  not  do  his  best.  He  is  regretful 
—  and  his  regret  occasionally  turns  almost 
to  bitterness  —  because  he  realises  if  only 
Thackeray  had  been  able  to  write  more 
leisurely,  and  had  not  been  compelled  to 
live  from  hand  to  mouth,  as  it  were,  the 
novelist  would  have  told  a  better  story, 
and  would  have  more  carefully  penned 
the  pages  in  which  it  was  unfolded.  "That 
turning  back  to  the  old  pages,"  Thackeray 
wrote  in  a  Roundabout  Paper,  "produces 
anything  but  elation  of  mind.  Would  you 
not  pay  a  pretty  fine  to  be  able  to  cancel 
some  of  them?  Ah,  the  sad  old  pages, 


Mr.  Whibley  on  Thackeray    277 

the  dull  old  pages!"  The  critic  admits  that 
Thackeray's  style  is  graphic,  various,  and 
at  times  eloquent;  and  he  instances  several 
passages  that  entitle  Thackeray  to  a  high 
place  among  English  writers  —  much  of 
"Esmond,"  Harry  Warrington's  first  visit 
to  England,  Denis  Duval's  journey  to  Lon- 
don, Barry  Lyndon's  famous  defence  of 
play,  and  the  Waterloo  chapters  of  "Vanity 
Fair."  After  all,  Thackeray's  style  at  its 
worst  was  equal  to  that  of  any  contemporary 
novelist;  at  its  best  it  has  been  excelled 
by  none. 

Mr.  Whibley  points  out  that  Thackeray's 
contemporaries  believed  he  was  something 
more  than  a  novelist  —  a  social  regenerator; 
and  that  Thackeray  regarded  himself  as  a 
moralist.  Thackeray  never  wrote  a  novel 
with  a  purpose,  such  as  "Nicholas  Nickleby," 
or  "Man  and  Wife,"  or  "It  is  Never  too  Late 
to  Mend,"  for  he  was  too  great  an  artist  to 
make  that  fatal  blunder;  but  he  regarded 
himself  as  a  latter-day  "  sad  and  weary,  splen- 
did King  Ecclesiast,"  crying  his  sermon 
from  the  modern  equivalent  of  the  Mount 


278    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

of  Hermon.  "  [Thackeray]  the  moralist  was 
so  tight-bound  to  the  superstitions  of  his 
age,  that  he  will  probably  never  appear  as 
great  as  he  did  to  some  of  his  contempo- 
raries," says  Mr.  Whibley.  Mr.  Whibley  is 
on  firmer  ground  when  he  asserts  that  there 
were  always  two  men  in  Thackeray,  the  sen- 
timental moralist,  and  "the  keen-eyed  iron- 
ist, for  whom  life  was  an  amusing  game, 
whose  rules  were  independent  of  virtue,  and 
in  which  the  scoundrel  was  most  often  victo- 
rious." The  ironist  was  sometimes  defeated 
by  the  sentimentalist,  sometimes  by  the 
moralist,  but  when  he  could  have  his  way  un- 
fettered, he  drew  Barry  Lyndon  —  and  in  his 
heart  of  hearts  often  admired  the  knave  — 
and  portrayed  Becky  with  more  pleasure  than 
the  Amelia  for  whom  Dobbin  waited  too  long. 
A  propos  of  "Vanity  Fair,"  Mr.  Whibley  in- 
sists that  the  logical  end  of  the  book  is 
Rawdon  Crawley's  appointment  to  the  Gov- 
ernorship of  Coventry  Island,  and  that  the 
regathering  of  the  threads  is  a  wanton  and 
tedious  operation.  There  is  something  to 
be  said  for  this  view,  only  then  we  should 


Mr.  Whibley  on  Thackeray    279 

have  lost  the  chapters  Am  Rhein  and  the 
picture  of  Becky  in  her  degringolade,  which 
most  of  us  would  not  miss  but  with  deep 
regret. 

Mr.  Whibley  writes  with  enthusiasm  of 
Thackeray  as  a  creator  of  character.  There 
are  few  novelists  who  have  such  a  gallery  of 
characters  as  can  be  collected  from  Thack- 
eray's stories.  Think  of  those  universally 
known.  Becky  and  her  husband  Rawdon, 
Major  Pendennis,  Mirobolant,  Costigan, 
Foker,  "J.  J.,"  Ned  Bayham,  Madame 
d'lvry,  Mons.  le  Prince  de  Moncontour 
(better  known  as  M.  de  Florae),  Beatrix 
Esmond,  wonderful  as  a  girl,  marvellous  as 
an  old  lady  —  the  catalogue  might  be  con- 
tinued almost  indefinitely.  How  truly  they 
are  described,  how  minutely,  how  humanly, 
and  also  how  humanely.  They  are  more  real 
to  many  of  us,  better  known  to  many  of  us, 
than  the  people  of  flesh  and  blood  we  meet 
every  day.  Mr.  Whibley  treats  of  Thack- 
eray as  lecturer,  attacking  almost  with 
virulence  the  lecture  on  Swift;  as  art  critic; 
and,  of  course,  as  novelist  and  essayist. 


280    Some  Aspects  of  Thackeray 

Strangely  enough,  however,  he  says  no  word 
of  Thackeray  as  the  writer  of  verse;  this  is 
surprising,  for,  though  by  no  means  a  great 
poet,  Thackeray  wrote  many  charming  bal- 
lads, though  his  rhymes  were  often  appalling, 
his  metre  not  always  perfect.  There  can  be 
little  doubt  that  his  ballads  will  be  more 
widely  read  and  his  reputation  as  a  writer 
of  verse  be  considerably  enhanced.  Again, 
though  Mr.  Whibley  mentions  that  Thack- 
eray studied  art,  he  does  not  anywhere 
refer  to  him  as  an  artist,  or  as  the  illustrator 
of  his  own  works.  Mr.  Whibley  agrees  with 
the  critics  who  have  preceded  him  that"Lovel 
the  Widower"  may  be  disregarded;  that 
"Philip,"  though  built  upon  an  ampler  scale, 
is  almost  tedious,  and  frequently  shows  the 
weariness  of  the  hand  that  penned  it;  and 
that  in  "Denis  Duval"  he  recovered  his  old 
mastery  and  displayed  his  old  style  —  but 
"Denis  Duval,"  which  bade  fair  to  rank  with 
"Esmond,"  is,  alas !  but  a  fragment.  Thack- 
eray will  go  down  to  posterity  as  the  author 
of  "Vanity  Fair"  and  "Pendennis,"  of 
"Barry  Lyndon"  and  the  inimitable  "Es- 


Mr.  Whibley  on  Thackeray    281 

mond,"  the  greatest  historical  novel  written 
by  an  Englishman;  as  the  most  humorous 
of  nineteenth  century  novelists,  and  as  the 
lineal  descendant  in  letters  of  the  man  be- 
fore whom  he  bent  the  knee,  Henry  Fielding. 


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